Sunday 15 August 2010

Peach harvest. Avalon Pride Peach Tree.

 Sorry I've been away so long, readers. We've certainly had some joys and challenges in the past few weeks. As far as organic gardening is concerned - I've had to prioritise 'doing' rather than 'writing'.  This is going to be a short blog post too as I need to get my head down to finish that chapter of the book on early years education I'm writing. (See link at the end of this post).

In June, July and August everything grows so fast (including the weeds) I often feel as if I'm on the verge of losing it. But here is the absolute Star of the Show. You're impressed, aren't you?

Here's a picture of our Avalon Pride peach tree. Bear in mind readers we waited four years for this particular harvest. I've lost count of the number of people who told me you couldn't grow a free-standing peach tree organically in the North West of England. Don't listen to them, I say - where there's a will there's a way...

Over the past few weeks we've harvested over eighty peaches from this tree. My daughter has been eating them like sweets and believe me, there's nothing like a freshly picked peach on a sunny day. They are brimming with Vitamin C, too, I understand. Glory and glamour down at the plot...


Every week now, I'm coming home loaded down with fruit and vegetables. Here we have the last of the home-grown peaches, large new potatoes (Lady Christl) - we use them for sausages and mash right now with home made onion chutney - broad beans some of which go straight in the freezer. Courgettes (not too many but just enough) - apples picked small - which went straight into the Peach and Chilli Chutney I made last week with the softest peaches.

Lots of raspberries too - golden and red.


To look back at the history of our Avalon Pride peach tree - check out some of posts listed below.
To check out what I'm writing right now on Early Years Education see my blog Parent's Guide to the Early Years Foundation Stage.
AND - if you're looking for some more guidance on organic fruit growing, you can't go wrong with Bob Flowerdew's book - here's the link:

Revisit some of my Avalon Pride Peach Posts here. Hope to be back before too long with instructions on how to make Peach Ice Cream. Heavenly.

How to grow a Peach Tree Organically

2 comments:

  1. Is your peach tree still doing well? I also live in the north west - Chester - and am considering buying an Avalon Pride, to plant as a free-standing tree in my garden. I've also been told it's impossible to grow peaches in this part of the UK. Two years on from your last post, would you still recommend it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is good news. I've just bought one for my brother, so we'll see how it does on London clay.
    My own peach tree in west Surrey, variety unknown, is similarly free-standing and produced 180 good quality fruits in 2011 after 220 in 2010. And that was after reducing the fruitlets in much the same way as you by about 4 in 5. By doing this I aim to prevent the fruits from touching each other. The year I didn't do enough reducing a large branch broke off under the weight of nearly-ripe fruit.

    ReplyDelete

Comments here. Thanks.