Peachy Memories

 

Bud went to a meeting this morning and came home with three peaches which went nicely with our quiche for lunch.

He said the speaker had brought a box of peaches back from Southern Missouri and invited everyone to take some if they wanted.

Bud said "a box of peaches" and I immediately thought, "a lug of peaches". That's what Mom called them. I remembered when the grocery stores would advertise that peach lugs were in and Mom would buy a lug or two to can. I never questioned why they were called lugs, they just were. Googling tells me that lug is an agricultural unit. A lug of peaches weighs 19 to 22 pounds. 

I remember that there was a small peach tree on the south side of the garden for a long time. After it died Mom's neighbor, Crystal, would invite her to come up and pick peaches from her trees. 

When she was done peeling and pitting the peaches, mother would carry the dishpan of pits and peels out and dump them in the chicken pen. The following years peach trees started coming up which she either pulled or the hens picked clean.

One year I decided it would be a good idea to move some of those little trees outside the pen where they could grow and produce. Which they did. We weren't the only ones who liked the fruit, so did the groundhog living under the corn crib.

These were the little white peaches. It took a lot of them to amount to enough for a bowl full or a pie, but oh, their flavor, it couldn't be beat. Any kind of pie Mom made was always good, but peach was the best. It was my brother Ron's favorite. 

Those three peaches Bud brought home triggered some peachy memories this morning.