Peaches

 When they're good, they're very, very good!

 

Sometimes weighing in at over 1# each, the poor trees are so heavy with fruit that the weight of each branch must be supported with either sticks, or strings, or both. 

In this climate, though, they are notoriously susceptible to a fungus called peach leaf curl.  Leaves infected with this fungus turn red, get "blistered", and curl up.  Controls include spraying a couple fungicides; fixed copper and dormant leaf spray; neither of which are too obnixious.  Both are considered organic.  

Another control is hand-picking and removing any and all signs of disease.  Early in the spring, spraying is appropriate after a rain.  Hand picking is appropriate as disease emerges.  All pruning implements used must be sterilized using alcohol when moving between trees.  Affected leaves and branches are removed from the property.  The yard debris container is considered good enough, as municipal compost is managed at a high enough temperature to kill the fungus.  As the season progresses and buds appear, spraying is discontinued. 

When fruit emerges, thinning to one fruit per bunch is more or less ideal.  Reasons one might not do this include squirrels and birds, who like to come along and take one bite out of the easiest fruit to reach.  They like to do this before the fruit is ripe, ruining it for everyone.  As the season progresses, molested and damaged fruit is removed.  When fruit is affected by peach leaf curl, it will get a distinctive circular mold.  These peaches must also be removed to the yard debris, disturbing the fungus as little as possible.  

 As the fruit ripens, disease must be removed daily and ripe fruit must be picked to avoid spreading the fungus.  If left unchecked, an entire tree's offerings can be compromised within a few days.  As fruit drops on the ground, it must be picked up.  Good fruit must be removed to ripen or process, and diseased fruit is sequestered to the yard debris container.

Good peaches need to be gathered together and brought into the house to ripen.  As they are ready, they are sliced into sections (~8/peach).  These are placed on trays, skin side down, and frozen in the kitchen refrigerator top freezer.  After they spend the night there, they can be placed together in a ziploc bag.  Partial bags are placed into the top freezer of the pantry fridge.  When full, they are moved to the upright freezer for long-term storage.