56 pounds

that’s how many peaches whitney and i brought home from the river market thursday night.

a moment of weakness. a love of the peach. the unavailability of the peach in arkansas this season due to a late freeze. my sister and the cousins in town, who also love peaches. i love to share. the hot weather. the end of the summer fruit season coming like the end of the harry potter book, slam, bang. oh, i want to experience it, but i don’t want it to be over…

these reasons could all have contributed to my saying, “oh, yes, we’ll take an entire crate of each variety please…” as we poured peaches out all over the counters, i had just a hint of a twinge of, “maybe i bought a few too many…” but it was gone with the dribbling of peach juice down the chins of nine little monkeys…that’s how many cousins there are when we all get together. so we have had pancakes with homemade peach syrup, peaches in our cereal, peaches for breakfast, lunch and dinner. we left a few with friends and grandparents. the answer to any child’s wish for a snack, “have a peach!” and last night after dinner, we had ina garten’s peach crostata from her new cookbook. with ice cream. it just doesn’t get much better than that.

and we’re still going. we have many more peachy treats to make before we get to the bottom of our barrel.