SLO NightWriters

They say you can’t go home.  Maybe, not, but you can bring a little of the past with you.  The good parts, leave the other behind, if you can.

I wanted to be like my mother and I guess I grew up to be like her in several ways.  She began teaching me to garden before I entered kindergarten.  I liked it then and I still enjoy being in my garden—my joints scream now, but my mind is at peace when I’m pulling weeds or edging a border.

When I was growing up, we had two Babcock peach trees.  The kind of peach you never got in the grocery store—the white peach.  The season was short and it bruised very easily so growers didn’t find it a viable fruit for regular markets.

Our trees would ripen on July 15, give or take a couple of days, each year.  After that, the fruit would fall off in a heap.  This mass exodus encouraged my mother to can the peaches and/or share them with the neighbors.

I’m not much of a caner, but I do like to share my extra fruit with my neighbors.  Call it pride in my work or just not wanting my fruit and vegetables to go to waste.  Either way, giving away my extra bounty makes me feel good.

It must make me feel euphoric because I have eighteen fruit trees and I planted sixteen of them.  Right now, I have too many naval oranges on my tree so at the next SLO NightWriters meeting in March you will see a basket of oranges.  Help yourself!

SLO NightWriters is going to start a monthly fruit/vegetable co-op.  Bring in your extras and take what you need.

Listed below are the fruit trees in my back yard:

Here’s a link to some additional information:

http://www.davewilson.com/ordered/pdf/san_luis_obispo/SLO_farm_SLO.pdf

Happy gardening and sharing when you aren’t writing!

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