Neighbourhood peach tree

Word has gotten around that we like to rescue forgotten fruit around town, picking and harvesting wonderful fruit from the trees of willing neighbours, as well as trees, bushes (or the ground) on boulevards, in city parks, along hiking trails, etc...and there is a lot of fruit to be found in our city!  We've had luck finding pears, apples, cherries, grapes, saskatoon (service berries), raspberries, mulberries, and even plums - but so far did not come across anyone with a peach tree.  Today, a friend dropped by with a basket full of plump miniature peaches - perfectly sized for a child's hand.  They were tiny, oval-shaped, sweet, very fuzzy (much more than market full-sized peaches), and oh so tasty!  She sourced them from a tree growing right nearby, which a neighbour had shared with her and told her the tree was aproximately 100 years old!  Don't know if the age of the tree is correct, but it is certainly old and would then likely stand where one of the original farms in this area was.  I would love to know more about the story of this tree - who planted and cared for it, was it part of an orchard, how far does it date back?  What a great historical landmark for this neighbourhood.  Delicious - thanks for thinking of us Michelle!

Fresh cut flower bouquets go to market

"The earth laughs in flowers" - e.e. cummings

We've been selling some of our extra garden bounty through the Bailey's Local Foods buying club every Friday. This is part of the "producerism" mentality of our homestead, trying to find ways to make all aspects of our day-to-day life productive - a concept we define as either earning some income, sharing our excess, educating, or reducing our ecological impact. We've offered fresh herbs, wild grape leaves, dried herbal teas, and also cut flower bouqets to the buying club members. I love making the simple bouquets, using black eyed susan, echinacea, zinnias, sunflowers and daisies which are in full bloom right now. I try to keep fresh flowers around the house whenever I can, as well as enjoying them in the garden. We've also been collecting seed from the annuals in the fall (sunflowers, cosmos, nasturtium, borage, calendula, marigolds, etc) . An easy way to keep flowers fresh in a vase is to add 1 tsp sugar to the water. Changing the water daily also helps prolong the bloom life of cut flowers. Here are some photos as I was preparing the bouquets - we take them to the buying club car-free (by stroller), with my little one helping out.