Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Pick your Own Peaches...


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Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven -- Tagore


Seeing Chandrika’s post made me do this. Yes, finally. I had a yearning to take little S to the orchards where she can get to “pick her own” fruits. Not that that would make her eat all her fruits with a glee but just because she would know that fruits grew on trees and not in Shop Rite. With my tomato and beans and okra (last year) plants she has got the hang of where they come from but she was yet to see a fruit laden tree from where you could pluck them. So since I couldn’t grow a fruit tree in my backyard I thought the best would be to take her to the orchards



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Peaches, Peaches EveryWhere


Last week was pretty hectic with some unexpected but very welcome guests popping in and staying with us for the better part of the week. The guest was my friend with her 4 year old en route to India who had to stop and spend time at my place due to some messed up travel plan. Since it was summer but the heat was not overbearing we took the kids to an orchard near my home. The strawberry season was over and the peaches were just ripening to be picked, so peaches it was.

The rows and rows of peach trees were laden with fruits, there was fruit hanging from all possible branches and the kids had a fun time plucking them and plonking them in the basket. They ran through the trees, hung on the delicate branches (you are not really allowed to do that) and had a general good time.



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Little hands picking the fruit


I would suggest a trip to these orchards a very good way to entertain your kids during summer. Its relaxing, exhilarating and reminds you of the days when you would climb up the guava tree and get a bunch of green guavas in the nook of your long A line frock.



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Luscious Peaches


Once back with all the peaches I was not sure what to do with them other than distributing a large share. I am not really a very fruity person and though I love trees, even those with fruits hanging from them, I am not really too keen on eating them. The one fruit I really, really love is watermelon and I love it as it is without messing up. Even as a juice I like the chunky watermelon juice which needs a spoon to scoop up the chunks. Also I add almost nothing (maybe a little sugar) to my watermelon and that’s it.
So I didn’t really have anything to submit for dear Bee & Jai’s AFAM.



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And then there came the peaches. I googled for a peach salad and found this. I had nothing that was in the ingredient list except the peaches. So I paired up the peeled and cut peaches with my dear old watermelon, drizzled 3 tsp of lime juice mixed with 1 tsp of honey for 1 peeled and diced peach + six melon ball and let it chill. It tasted good but then give me my watermelon in its pristine condition any day. This goes to Bee & Jai's AFAM-Watermelon , an event that originated from Maheshwari's (whom we are missing very much) brain and blog. I would suggest you follow the original recipe to make the right salad.

A little watermelon joke that I want to chronicle, to laugh at when I get old.
Watermelon in Bengali is called Tormuj. Now Tor in Bengali is synonymous to Tu in Hindi or You in English. Last year when S took a real liking to watermelon we told her it is called TorMuj. She analysed it as Tor + Muj i.e. Your + Muj. So when she eats a watermelon she says “Ami AmarMuj khachi” i.e. “I am eating My Muj”. When I eat it she says “Tumi TomarMuj khachcho”. The name of the fruit is Muj for her while she adds a pronoun. If you didn't get the joke just let go.

Some links to Pick your Own farms
Pick your Farm from here -- State by State listing
Pick your Farm in NJ -- NJ listings

(a part of this post shared with DesiMomzClub)

Trivia: Peach is the state flower of Delaware and the state fruit of South Carolina. The Stae of Georgia calls itself the "Peach State"
Though it is not known when watermelon was first cultivated, there is evidence of Watermelon cultivation in the Nile Valley in the early second millenium BC. Numerous watermelon seeds were recovered from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (Source:
Wiki). Now I know why I like it

51 comments:

  1. Looks like you guys had a great time :).

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  2. We get it! Its yr AFAM post, with watermelon marked in red :)

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  3. Mahua
    Do you have a blog ? Your name does not have a link

    Suganya
    Get the point ;-)

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  4. love those pics of the orchards. and love the combo of melon with peaches. thanks for the entry.

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  5. Sandeepa, love to visit those farms to have a look. Nice pictures. Nice entry too. Viji

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  6. That's a lovely way to spend a day with the kids. I love the refreshing salad you created too. Sometimes the simplest of things brings a lot of pleasure.

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  7. I love peaches.... they are so good to taste.. i have come to love these and whatever a colorfule combo with the watermelon

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  8. hehe, my muj -your muj joke cracked me up, litle S is soooo cute... she comes up with the greatest stuff...

    Salad looks great Sandeepa, peaches and watermelon, what is not to love... :)

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  9. Looks like you had a great day, with little S!!
    The watermelon and peach salad looks yummy!!!

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  10. What a great trip! I would love to visit the farm and pick my own peaches... Divine!

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  11. little S is so cute! :)) I wish I could tag along too to pick peaches :)

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  12. sandeepa, am curious - the peaches in the first two photos look magenta, is that the camera and lighting or are there such peaches, among the 'normal' ones?

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  13. LOL! Lil S is so so cute!! You must write more about her. :) Lovely fruit salad indeed..... the combo sounds really good. :)

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  14. Sandeepa, Little S must have loved the trip to the farm. Those fruit laden trees look really beautiful. Thanks for the link. How about making Peach Melba? Remember Peach Melba icecreams back home? My first introduction to Peaches though I had no clue how they looked. The first time I saw them here I grabbed one but am not a big fan.

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  15. Pick-your-own is always lots of fun with the kids Sandeepa... have you tried picking apples in autumn? That's the favorite in our house. Looks like you had a lovely day :)

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  16. I am not able to see the pics posted by you in IE and firefox. dont know what could be the problem. will come back again to see the pics of the little hands. I too am thinking of going farm picking.

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  17. We went Apple Orchard once,loved it!:))
    Bet S was happy to be there,new adventure for her.AFAM entry looks good,you don't need to do anything for fruits most of the time!:))

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  18. Unfortunately I don't have a blog Sandeepa but I love to cook and my husband and friends have a great time tasting my cooking :). I discovered your blog and other cooking blogs a few weeks ago and love browsing through it.Do you have an email address I can contact you at ?

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  19. We usually go berry picking...the kids love it...we're planning it sometime during the holidays...little S must have enjoyed it...

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  20. My friend, you always show us S'l lil hands or fingers....I want to see her face :) Just kidding ok...I know it's not safe on the virtual world...but she is my fav virtual kid :)I have never visited the peach orchads...been to an apple orchard...

    Shn

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  21. Lovely post and a great entry... thanks for the information on finding the farms... i have been wanting to go to one since i moved to florida

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  22. Super cute, that tormuj joke :-D.

    Love those pictures, especially lil' S picking up the fruits. convey my hugs to her :.

    and its so much fun to go pick your own fruits :). especially when its luscious peaches (slurp!)

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  23. Loved the farm, the melon, the peaches..all the pictures...everything....

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  24. Bee
    Thanks for accepting :)

    Viji
    This was my first visit and I really liked it. maybe should go for another one soon

    Meeta
    Thanks. Like Soeren maybe S will develop a liking towards fruits & veggies too

    Dee
    The peaches were pretty good but I am not a big peach lover. Maybe you should go :)

    Sig
    You got the joke..yehhhh. I thought you needed to understand Bengali to understand it but guess knowing hindi also helps

    Cinnamon
    Thanks :)

    Anh
    Do you have such open farms in your side of the world ?

    Jyothsna
    Sure, shall give you a call next time

    Sra
    Those were a deep red. I don't know the variety, there were two rows of those and two rows of the default colour

    Coffee
    You know kids say such funny things everyday, almost

    Indo
    Yeah even I had not seen peaches in India. yes remember the ice cream though and the rhyme "Each Peach Pear Plum, Here comes Tom Thumb"

    Linda
    Had never gone picking before. Would love to go for strawberries too as S loves them (among the very few fruits she likes) but the season is over

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  25. Sandeepa, is this orchard in NJ? It looks like Mellick's in Califon. We'll be going in a few weeks. Glad you had a good time. It's so much fun.

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  26. I wanna go to farm picking... every time I plan for such farm picking and it flops, I really envy seeing someone's post on farm picking. Really have to finalize this week abt this! Nice post where did u visit in NJ?

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  27. farm picking is always such a fun exp :)

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  28. Sharmi
    You should, your son will love it

    Asha
    Your kids wouldn't be thrilled by such activity any more I think :)

    Mahua
    I don't give out my e-mail just because I don't check my blog e-mail much except when I am sending posts for events :) Since you are a good cook and also familiar with Bengali cooking, it would be great if you could give me your suggestions on the recipes I have

    Sunita
    Next I want to go raspberry picking. Somehoe neither me nor S likes bluberries

    Shn
    You are so sweet :) She would loved to have a "Masi" like you :)

    Priyanka
    Florida must have lots of them too

    Musical
    While I was posting this, I remebered all your fruit picking pics in india.

    Poonam
    Thanks :)

    Susan
    Yeah this is in NJ. Are you going to Calif. ?

    Padma
    This is in Manalapan. The name is Battleview Orchards

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  29. The orchard pic of urs reminds me of the peach picking we went last summer..u should have had a great time in the farm and i guess little S enjoyed her trip.

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  30. Wow! They look so good on the trees, don't they? It's been ages since I have even been to an orchard (well, that is if I don't consider the vineyards!).

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  31. There is a farm about 15 minutes from me where I could pick my own peaches. I have to go there now. You post was so descriptive, I felt I could smell the perfume from the peaches! Beautiful pictures!

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  32. S is soooo adorable with her tormuj puns!

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  33. We are going to the orchards in Califon, NJ (Hunterdon County).
    The Mellick family farm has been there for many generations.

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  34. Hi sandeepa
    that is a good thing u did.thanks for the link .

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  35. Wow lovely pics Sandeepa... I have been for apple picking, strawberry picking and cherry picking and loved them all. I have to google and find for peach picking now. Little S is so cute Sandeepa. She made me LOL. Hugs to her.

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  36. Sandu, I have a doubt. how much did the peaches cost you. In one of the farms it is given $1.39 per lb. is it reasonable? to how far can you call it as a reasonable price?

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  37. smart thing to do sandeepa. fruits growing at shop-rite! haha...but it's true, the first discovery of actually seeing fruits/veges growing on trees/in gardens was fascinating and even now i find it exciting when people tell me they grow some of their own fruits and vegetables!

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  38. Prema
    It sure was fun

    Shantanu
    It would be vineyards for you with your freq. travel to west coast :)

    Sher
    You grow a lot of fruits yourself and your neighbour does too :) If you were nearby I would visit your garden instead of the farm :)

    Nupur
    :)

    Susan
    Am I dumb or dumber ? I thought you were off to California :) Saw the Mellick farms online, but the website had some problem, couldn't get the details

    Swapna
    Your daughter will love it, try

    Seema
    Wow I would have loved to go strawberry picking but we missed

    Sharmi
    I think thats around the price most farms have.

    Anamika
    Yeah growing your own stuff does give alot of pleasure

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  39. Hi Sandeepa,
    lovely pictures as usual...

    this comment is not really linked to the peaches but more to mangoes.
    Last weekend i tried out your mango pudding,...it was just TOO GOOD!!! super hit among the guests as well...with everyone asking "how did you make it" and I kept on smiling and taking credit!
    The best part was how simple it is to make!!!

    mango pudding Zindabad! bong mom zindabad!

    cheers
    DR

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  40. Sandeepa, You take gorgeous pictures. We have a peach tree in our garden and last year since we couldn't finish eating all the peaches I canned some and froze some to have during winter. Canning is time consuming but freezing works really well, and the peaches can be added to porridge, ice cream and pies... a dollop of sunshine for those gloomy winter days.

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  41. Sandeepa, you aren't dumb. It would be easy to think I made a blooper of a typo. It's been known to happen.; )

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  42. Sandeepa, now you are tempting me to go on a field trip again...The peaches look luscious.. And glad you enjoyed the picking! :-)

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  43. I'm sure you all had lots of fun, especially lil one. I miss CA:(. Beautiful pictures.

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  44. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  45. your tormuj joke is funny sandeepa. looks like you and little S had a lot of fun.

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  46. where did u go for the peaches? i have been hinting for a good pick ur own farm for peaches. loved seeing those tiny hands!we had planned to go yest, but got rained out.

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  47. hey Sandeepa, Ya now my Son is doing good. He is very accident prone right from his childhood. 2 teeth were shaking and they pulled out one.
    the other day the fell down at home near the kitchen and got hit by the wall's edge. each and every time he does something I feel I have to run to the emergency . so these days I am just behind him. keep him busy.
    How is your little one?

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  48. gorgeous pics san. i donno how i missed this post. right now i am in middle of my training;) will come back n read the post later:)

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  49. Mymuj, tomarmuj was the cutest!!! I love it when kids just simply the language to their liking. I was browsing for some cabbage side dishes and chanced upon your page.
    My son speaks bengali like a firang. He's picked up more english, so everyone here thinks he's got the accent, while i visited Sydney! :D anyways, i like the enthusiasm with which you cook. Catch up with you sometime.

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