Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me

As much as I like to think I am not, I am a city girl.  My “garden” consists of 6 plants in a square patch on the side of my house.  We get our eggs in a carton at the grocery store and our milk in gallon jugs just down the aisle from the milk.

So, I try to give my kids farm fresh experiences as much as possible.  It takes a bit of driving, but seems like a small price to pay in my book to give my kids prior knowledge experiences.

Sunday we packed up the kids and caravanned with our friends to western MD with plans for some peach picking at an orchard.   We were skipping nap time, but it was worth it b/c our kids were going to get to pick peaches.

We arrived at the orchard eager to pick our peaches.  It was the opening weekend of peach picking at the orchard. 

Apparently we weren’t the only ones enthusiastic to provide an authentic orchard experience for our family. 

They were picked out. 

All they had left was green peaches.  We were told that we could come again next weekend and reminded that we should always call first.

Yea… that was going to fly real well with the kids who just sat for an hour long van ride after church and Sunday School that morning. 

We needed plan B and fast.

Notice anything odd about this picture?

  

How about this one?

Seem a little strange that the kids are mostly bending over in these shots instead of reaching up in the trees?

Yes, we did.

We bought some peaches from the stand and my friend and I carefully placed the peaches on the ground underneath the recently finished cherry tree crop and then had the kids come and gather them.

Why cherry trees, you ask?  Well, we spoke to the manager about our dilemma and begged for her to let us at least walk through the peach trees,perhaps with some recently bought peaches.  Turns out the peach trees were on the way other side of the orchard and for liability reasons she couldn’t just let us go traipsing off over there.  She did however give us permission to traipse through the cherry trees right across the street from the stand.  If we didn’t mind “taking the deception a little further.”

I promise we never lied to them once.

We said, “Kids, come look at the fruit trees.”

“Oh look at all those peaches on the ground. Let’s get some.”

So much for creating prior knowledge and providing a “real,  farm like experience” for my suburbanite children.  

I can just see it now, years later my kids are grown and snacking on peaches when they mention to their children how you always wait for the peaches to ripen before picking them.  Then you just walk along and gather the beautiful ripe peaches off of the ground and bring them home. 

Looks like for the benefit of my future grandchildren, I gotta plan another peach picking outing for the circus crew.  Next time though, I will call ahead first.