She Died a Heroine

Not blessed with natural or even cultivated symmetry, ravaged by an Autumn squall that topped her upright upper trunk and left her with but one limb plaintively extended to the east.  She was not a beauty, but she was faithful and fruitful, shading the tortoise burrow beneath her and skirted in the Spring with a cluster of purple irises, she was a joy.


Despite the need to lop off two-thirds of her branches and foliage last September; given a wet winter and spring, coupled with a lack of late frost, she set a profuse amount of liquid pink blossoms in March.  The peach crop was abundant and of high quality, meaning a less than usual amount of spoilage on the tree and for some reason, the fruit seemed less picked by birds and and bugs this year.


While we were aware of the bumper crop, we were afraid to wait for the perfect moment to harvest, so we plucked a hearty amount from the branches and brought several buckets into the kitchen to process for cobbler and pies.  The next evening, the sole limb had a large "green stick" fracture longitudinally along laden limb.  The quantity of peaches set was too weighty for the tree to bear and it split the last remaining branch.


All in all we harvested (my guess) around 40 pounds of peaches.  Plenty of pies and cobbler have already been filled with the sweet taste of sunset colored peaches - no sugar added or needed!  The freezer holds bags and bowls of additional pared peaches for future treats.


Last weekend I amputated the splintered limb that is now devoid of fruit, but was a nice summer shade for the tortoise burrow, and hauled the sawed up chunks of limb to the curb for pick up by the city yard waste crew on Wednesday.  She provided a cornucopia of early summer fruit full of juice and taste.  And she broke under the weight of such immense fecundity.


She died a heroine,


Ahh, what is this?  New green shoots are now reaching a cubit above the point of the sawed off limb.  Perhaps we will harvest again in a year or two!


Life finds a way.  Perhaps peaches will not perish from the premises after all.