Venus peaches, cherokee purples, cayenne peppers, datterini and cherry toms.
The jury is in. Bye-bye peach tree. As much as we appreciated harvesting 17 pounds of fruit yesterday afternoon, the verdict to call it quits on our very first pesco is based on unanimous decision. It's a bittersweet feeling to throw in the towel like this but the Poppa di Venere white peaches, while big and relatively bug-free, are no longer up to the quality like those from the first year the tree bore fruit. They don't even look as smooth and perfect like they used to. The battle with PLC (peach leaf curl) was becoming more persistent with each passing year and the use of a fungicide was going against everything that we believed in about cultivating an organic garden.
Now the good news: cherokee purples! Any gardener who has successfully grown them know how delicious these heirlooms are. I was relieved that the almost ripe fruit didn't suffer split skins when heavy rains fell during the last week of August, and it was tomato bliss to slice and serve one alongside some cherry tomatoes and burrata cheese. The zucchini and cherry tomatoes are beginning to slow down, but there's still a lot of bell peppers and hot peppers on the bushes right now. This week's harvest totals 21 lbs.
Fresh eating: cherokee purple, datterini, cherry toms and burrata.
Linking up with Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.
Todays high: 27°C / 81°F
