Everything's Peachy

It is peach season in South Carolina, which means that those of us in Charlotte so close to the South Carolina state line can enjoy the bounty. My friend and I went to the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market on Saturday. Because we are in a heat wave, we got there at 8:00 a.m. Despite the earliness of our arrival, the place was already swarming with cars and people. 

It has been a few years since I visited this particular farmers market, so I was eager to see what was new. The market is huge, with two long pole barns and two additional long open-air but covered structures. Pretty much everything is sold there.

My particular interest was local honey and peaches. I was able to find plenty of both, along with a booth that specializes in coffee and tea. As a big tea drinker, I'm always looking for something new and different. I purchased a small bag of black tea flavored with cherries and chocolate. You can't go wrong with that combo!

Sunday I spent most of the day making peach jam. It is always hard for me to estimate how many jars of jam I will get out of the purchased peaches, so I tend to overbuy. The bucket I purchased Saturday ended up making nine jars of jam, with a few peaches left over just to eat. The peaches are delicious, and I can't wait to eat the jam!

peach jam

Friendly Visit

Some friends from St. Louis came to visit us last week following a conference they attended in Asheville. While it is always a bit of work to get ready for guests, it also motivates us to quit procrastinating and get some jobs done around the house.

National Whitewater Center

It was fun to show them a bit of what we love about living in this area. First and foremost is our house, with the lovely view of Mountain Island Lake. While it was a bit hot, looking out back at the lake is always refreshing. 

We took them to the U.S. National Whitewater Rafting Center, as that is unique to Charlotte and a short drive from our house. The Center is a 1,300-acre outdoor recreational and athletic training facility for whitewater rafting, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking and ice skating.

There are also numerous trails for hiking in addition to biking, aerial sports including an obstacle course, and multiple zipline options. Newer additions include a dog park and Wildwoods, a play area for children. The Center has a decent cafe, and we had lunch there while watching the activities on the water course and the zipliners flying by above.

The second day we drove up to Grandfather Mountain where it was at least 10 degrees cooler than the Charlotte area. At one point the temperature dropped to 68! Unfortunately it was cloudy, so the view wasn't as stellar as it normally is. It also started to rain, so we got back across the metal bridge in case of lightning. We stopped at a fun restaurant for lunch before driving back to our house.

Grandfather Mountain

On the way back we drove through a couple of cute little mountain towns. Once back on the highway south, we found a produce stand on the side of the road. I was able to pick up a peck of peaches. After our guests left, we made thirteen and a half jars of peach jam. There is a lot of sweetness in our future!

peach jam

Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

peach jam

Summer is winding down in my neck of the woods, perhaps sooner than normal as we have been blessed with temperatures in the 80s during the day and 60s overnight. Peaches are abundant right now, so I decided to try my hand at making peach jam. For the first batch, I made five jars of peach and five jars of a peach/blackberry mix. As the peach turned out well (haven't tried the mixed jam yet), I made a second round of peach on Saturday. For whatever reason, the peaches did not ripen as much as I would have liked, which made them challenging to smash with the potato masher. Consequently, I'll have to say that the end result is more peach preserve than peach jam. But I'm okay with that. The flavor is still quite good.

St. Louis Zoo

Sunday morning I met my photographer friend Caren at the St. Louis Zoo. With temperatures in the 60s when we started out, it was a perfect time to experience the animals. Because it was a Sunday, the zoo was not yet crowded so we were able to stroll and photograph at our leisure for the first hour or so. By the time it got really crowded, we were ready to head out anyway.

I had yet to visit the Grace Taylor Broughton Sculpture Garden behind the St. Louis Art Museum, so we walked there next. It was slightly disappointing, to say the least. There are no paths leading to each sculpture so you have to walk on the grass. As the irrigation system had been on that morning, it was a soggy endeavor. And I have no idea how the project met ADA requirements as I can't imagine pushing a wheelchair (or a stroller, for that matter), let alone trying to maneuver a walker through the area. Over 400 hundred trees have been planted, some purportedly representing "rooms", but all I could see was too many trees planted too close together. There will be tree casualties due to this, and that is a shame. Perhaps they should consider using a local landscape architect next time, instead of bringing someone in from France.

Sculpture Garden

We then headed inside to have an early lunch at Panorama, the restaurant located inside the museum. This was my second time eating here, and I have found both the food and the service to be quite good. Caren and I had both parked in the open lot across from the museum when we arrived that morning, so it was an easy walk back to the cars following our meals. It was good to get out and photograph again. It's been too long since I have taken time to do that.

Everything is Just Peachy

My daughter had her wisdom teeth taken out last Thursday. Did you know that, according to her oral surgeon, wisdom teeth are named such because they appear around the age of 18 when people should be gaining wisdom? Who thought of that crock of crap? At any rate, things went pretty well except for the fact that both nasal cavities were nicked in attempting to remove the long roots of the upper teeth. So she has a couple of stitches there as well as in her gums, and isn't supposed to blow her nose for a week. Good thing she was already over her cold. After seeing all she has gone through, I am really grateful that I never needed to have mine removed. I have all four but they never came down, and don't bother me at all. She is flying to Chicago on Wednesday to interview with 3 people at a communications agency that has offered her an internship in Shanghai while she is studying there this fall. This is the same agency that her class worked with in Prague this summer, so obviously they were impressed with her. I just hope that the flight poses no problems for her mouth. The surgeon said it was okay for her to fly.

Around playing Nurse Nancy, I picked up some peaches at the Kirkwood Farmers Market on Saturday. The vendor assured me that the peaches (which were seconds) would be ready to can on Sunday. Hah! They were barely ready to be canned today. It took me three hours to get the job done, and all I have to show for it are six quarts and one pint of peaches. Every year I wonder why I go to the trouble, but then in the winter when we open them up I remember why. So nice to have fresh peaches in the winter. I also make peach butter every year, so I need to go back out and get a second batch of peaches. I should have made the peach butter first, because it is an all-day ordeal as you have to cook the peaches for hours before canning them. Oh well. The peach butter is definitely worth all the work. I think I will wait for the weekend because then I might be able to coerce Jim into helping me peel and de-pit the peaches. Hate that part!