PEACHES

So here we have been so very blessed to have an abundant peach crop. One of the best we have ever had--and they are so so good. I was telling Doug, "can you ever get enough ripe peaches"? Our two trees in our yard have really done themselves proud, and we have enjoyed picking and eating 2 varieties of peaches for about 3 weeks now. yum, yum. Then I ordered another bushel from our neighbor, Jennifer Larsen's uncle who lives in Brigham City so I can can some. (I had canned about 8 qts from our tree). I was feeling pretty good about this peach thing, then I went over to Angie's house tonight and she had peaches all over the ground back by the fence. These were peaches that had fallen from her neighbors tree, that she can have, but she had not realized they were that ripe. I promptly got Angie to get me a container and started picking them up. We can't let these go to waste!! I got that mentality from growing up in an era when food was more scarce, raised in a large family where what food was prepared--went quickly, and in a town (Las Vegas) where fruit and vegetables weren't grown in abundance (not a farming community). So Doug and I always wanted to live where we could grow fruits and vegetables--and so here we are with all this abundance. Now what do we do with it all. We, of course, have to preserve it, to store it, and to eat it. Nothing goes to waste. Such a virtue, right? Well, it is a stressor--and I feel a weight of responsibility about making sure we are good stewards of what the Lord blesses us with. But I do try and balance it out--and not to go overboard too much. Still I am trying to figure out right now how to go and help Angie take care of all those extra peaches. When will I ever let this go? Probably not till the day I die.