Peaches 桃子

It’s peach blossom time, at least in our backyard! These are photos of our ‘tropical white’ peach tree that was developed specially for warm climates. It blooms 花開 at the beginning of February 二月初 and fruits from the beginning of April 四月初 until May. Normally, peaches require at least a certain number of nights of ‘chill,’ under 50 degrees, in order to fruit. In our area, the temperature rarely gets that low so this was a natural choice of tree. As you can see it has lots of blossoms this year. It is also attracting bees to the pollen, one of which I caught in the photo below.

We also have our “last chance” peach, which fruits at the opposite end in October and November. It is an incredibly ugly looking peach though it tastes really good. I brought one into the office to show to the secretary and in an obvious Crocodile Dundee imitation took one look at it, chuckled and said “you call this a peach??” She then pulled out this massive, flawless Asian-gift-style peach and said, “this is a peach!” But as in everything, never judge a book by its cover or a peach by its skin. Obey your taste, as they say incoherently in those advertisements.

Peaches in Europe were originally thought to have been from Persia, but there are records of them being cultivated in China at least as early as 1000 B.C. Peaches are also a symbol of long life in Chinese mythology 長生不老. They can be seen as the stars of many a Tang or Song dynasty painting.

It was 87 degrees today! I took my daughter to the park and we talked with some other parents, one of whom had just arrived from far away. Despite a lot of work in the mornings and late evenings to keep up, this is a relaxing time for us.