What to do with All of Those Peaches and Some Free Printable Peach Designs

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

I started this blog, last year around this time and never got around to finishing it. As I'm currently picking up the fruit that falls from my weinbergpfirsich (wine mountain peach) tree (I know, right?!), I'm cutting out all of the nasties, chopping and either using immediately in oatmeal, yogurt or a baked goodie or I'm freezing them in different sized zip locks. Of course, you can can them as well.

Last year, we had thousands of peaches. I gave most of them away. This year they were very sparse. We rarely pick our fruit, letting it stay on the trees. Otherwise, I'd never stop cooking, canning, etc. One of these days, I should go around our tiny yard and take pictures so you can see just how much food you can grow on a tiny space. Prices these days make this a very smart option, right?

We do nothing with our food in regards to fertilizers and pesticides and I mean nothing. The most I'll do is pick off pests or possibly spray the crap out of them with a mix of dish soap and water. The end. We are inundated with chemicals all around and on us, the heck if I'll add even more.

Most of our fruit is imperfect and we still have way more than enough. We just cut out the brown spots, scoop out the worms and eggs, rinse and prepare as necessary. We ain't dead yet. Hehehe...

As you can see, these are small peaches with a dark pink to purple flesh. Our peaches are fairly sour. You can enjoy them raw, but the skin and the slightly sour taste isn't all that delectable. Once, on a walk, I picked up one of these peaches that was laying in the road and it was delicious. So, not all trees are created equal. Pictured above is our plums as well. We hardly had any at all this year. My mother told me they skip years in regards to yields. 

Our cherries were the most insane, this year. We've had our two, small trees for nearly 20 years and this was the first time we had more than a bowl full. On a little side bar, as we were planting our trees, several neighbours warned us that they would never grow, but y'all know how stubborn I am. I guess I should blog them and all of the stuff the guys did with our huge harvest while I was doing my Scandinavian tour. We literally had buckets and buckets full.

As I mentioned, most of our fruit gets "ruined" from pests. It's easy to find the entry point. The little critters go right to the center or core of the fruit because that's where all of the good stuff is which is new information to me. I'll also have to write about that sometime more in detail or you can look into it yourself. Apricot pits, grape seeds and so many other fruit centers have almost magical type properties that are just great for us.

If I want to give away extras, I put them in recycled bags and pots and place them out front with a "free" sign. They never last! I guess I might piss off some neighbors that are trying to sell theirs, but I don't have enough room for some of our harvests and the fruit is rarely perfect. So why would I charge for that?

I'm getting another cook book together, Ultimate Oatmeal. Above, is an image of the peach, apple and plum. They're all ready about the same time which is usually end September, but this year the fruit was falling in August. The apple or a banana is a great way to add extra sweetness to your recipe. Oatmeal is a favorite of mine. You can put nearly any kind of fruit and or fruitable in there.

A decent harvest after a night of rainfall.

Peach butter! Even better than jam?

Below, is the hubs with one of our apples. Take a look down our driveway. It isn't really all that long. Pictured, you can see 3 apple and two pear trees. Growing  in between are raspberries, a bay leaf plant, mint, pumpkin, herbs of all kinds and somehow, there's a fig tree growing there now, too? I have no idea how that happened, but I'm over the moon about it. We've been trying to grow a fig tree for years and God only knows how the heck a fig tree is growing in the middle of the brick driveway? Divine intervention?

Bare with me through this. I'll have a sweet design for ya, a list to refer to and a lot of links to get you going on your whopping harvest.

Zip Locks Rock!

Pictured are apples, but I do this with all of our extra fruit and veg. Pack up your extras in different sized bags and freeze. If you want to bake a cake, you'll need a bigger bag, but if you only need a bit for some yogurt or oatmeal, you'll need the little guys. In another blog about having too many tomatoes, I shared the idea of putting tomato paste in ice cube trays, then once frozen, empty them into little ziplocks like this. Gee! I could have sworn I blogged about green tomatoes? They are crazy sweet and when mixed with red tomatoes and even a bit of the leaves from the plant, they are beyond delish. Cook'm, first or pickle them. I mentioned it in this blog which you may love.

Let's move on to our list and links so you can get going! I found a list, but after reading a few recipes saw it wasn't whole food. Darn! Y'all do not need to be eating food from boxes and premixes. Ugh! I am not at all a fan of mixing fruit with meat and vegetables, but a lot of people apparently put peaches in salsas, on the grill and on sandwiches. Call me old fashioned! You can find those recipes on your own. Hehehe...

Cobbler (We also do crumbles which are crazy easy.)

Peach Bellini (My mom's favorite. You could just add your peach juice to cava, prosecco...)

Peach Ice Cream and Sorbet

Jam

Oatmeal

Yogurt (blend plain yogo or kefir with peaches)

Smoothies

Cakes, Muffins, Breads and Pancakes

Fruit Salads

Granola (I dice fruit, heap on yogo or kefir and top with granola.)

Peach Iced Tea (Super yum!)

Peach Fritters (???)

Peach Cookies

Peach Popcyles

Lemonade with Peaches

Cinnamon Sugar Baked Peaches (Sounds delish!)

Peach juice and wine (Check out how easy it is to juice on this blog.)

Goodness, y'all! I just did a search in Pinterest and I can't wait to get to the kitchen.

Here's your free design. I downloaded the clipart from Design Bundles. They've got so many awesome designs, including those in our shop. Here's a few of my favorite fall stuffs from our shop, Kreative Design Studio.

Enjoy 2 free printable or digital papers and a pretty peach tag.

Seasonal goodies from my shop:

Thanks for hanging with The Cherry!

Swelling and Pain After a Fight with a Rose? Try this Natural Remedy and Grab Some Beautiful Free Rose Designs

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

My apologies for not being consistent. The world is really on its head for a bit and shows no signs of uprighting itself. Hehehe...No worries, I've got so many blogs still planned including free designs, free templates, more fun travel blogs, cooking (peaches are next) blogs and more, more, more! Just hang in there.

Y'all! Before I could even finish this blog, I yet again, got an infection from a brush with a rose thorn as I was picking up my dog's poop. My finger was nearly twice its normal size. This time, I knew right what to go for. Unreal?!

Recently, I barely bumped an old rose bush while working in the garden. It really was just a quick, little prick and not deep at all. I sucked on the wound and carried with my work. I've had many a row with a rose and never ever had issues, until now. Ugh!

I couldn't even sleep that night! The pain was terrible. In the morning, I saw my knuckle was really swollen and red. By the next day, I couldn't see two knuckles from the swelling. I considered going to the doctor, it was that bad.

So read further to learn what I did to stop the pain on contact, grab some pretty rose inspired designs and check out some of my roses from our gardens both past and present. They are nothing fancy because I am not at all a fan of roses, even less so now. Hehehe... Right click and download the designs.

 

I went online to see if I could find any answers and as usual, what I read nearly scared me half to death! When will I learn?! So there's a thing called sporotrichosis. It's a fungal infection that spreads to bones and joints and boy oh boy were my bones hurting. I had burning, throbbing pain in my pinky as well and it was spreading really fast. Great! I tried all kind of stuff. Of course, washing and antiseptic spray. Then some coconut oil and none of that worked at all.

Here's a variety of roses in our tiny front garden from a former house. I could't just rip out these really old roses. Besides, you can eat the petals, make tea and I love refrigerating my rose water when the temperatures rise.

Ice helped a bit with the swelling, but only temporarily.

I knew that tea tree oil was an anti-fungal and that it needs a carrier oil. So, I went with castor oil which is anti fungal, anti bacterial and anti viral. If y'all still ain't got this in the medicine cabinet, get on it. 

I put a few drops of each in the palm of my hand and with my index finger, dabbed the mix on the infected area. People, I had immediate relief. Thank the Lord above because I was needing relief. How crazy easy is that?!  I used my mix three times a day. First thing in the morning, sometime in the afternoon and right before bed.

I had no sign of any injury at all after just two days. I was dumbfounded. If you've been following me all of these years, you know how granola crunchy I am. Experiences like this is all the encouragement one needs to continue on this path.

Of course, this is not medical advice. I wouldn't dare! I'm simply sharing a story and while I'm at it, I'll link you up with another blog where tea tree oil saved the day. There's this one and how it was the only thing that got rid of our lice dilemma after years of turmoil. I also used it to eradicate my toenail fungus. Again, nothing worked! It did take a really long time. I recommend not using toenail polish at all, ever. Since I treated my tootsies with the tea tree oil and stopped using incredibly toxic nail polish, my nails are beyond fab. I will spare you photos! Hehehe...Take my word for it. The little ridges and lines are gone and my nails are so nice and white, they look like they had a French Manicure.

This rose came with the house along with many others around the back garden. I left this one in the pot it came in and moved it by the door. I added some other plants all around the outside to help fill in the pot. I should definitely take some pics.

I blogged about container gardening and it's a big hit. Did you miss it? I just love container gardens! Click the image below, for some serious inspiration and wait until you see the next blog dedicated to it. My planters never cost more than $20 to design. Some can even cost nothing. I've been hitting up our green dump and the green container at the cemetery. Is that not a cool thing to do? I don't know. I just can't stand when people throw out a perfectly good plant!

Grab a few more free designs with a vintage vibe and roses. Grrr...Hehehe...I'm pretty sure the below design might be a sticker.

So apparently, roses can have a mold like residue on them. Those are the ones ya wanna watch out for! You can treat this mold with neem oil. Just two tablespoons in a gallon of water and spray the crap out of infected areas. If you've got aphids, spray a mix or water and a few drops of dishwashing liquid. You'll have to do it a lot, but it totally works and it's non toxic. That's our thing at The Cherry. If having two kids with Autism taught me anything it's that we live in a very toxic world. So, our little world, our bubble we live in, needs to be as toxic free as possible and let me tell you, folks, natural remedies almost always work and I will be back with more. I've cured myself of so many things using CBD oil, black seed oil and DMSO. The results were so unbelievable, I have to tell you. I wrote it down on my short list. So come on back in the next month or so and perhaps cure your reflux, allergies and other not so nice ailments.

How do you use your roses? Did you know, if you are cutting them for scent, it's best to do it in the morning? If you have roses with large petals, you can candy them and charge a frig'n fortune for them?! Sell them for fancy parties and weddings! I love rose water. It's crazy easy to make. You'll kick yourself in the fanny for not doing it ages ago. Put a pot on the stove, get it good and warm, chuck in some petals, maybe a good handful either dry or fresh, turn down the heat, let it simmer about 10-15 minutes and strain. Duh, right?! I put my cooled liquid in a recycled, spray bottle and keep it in the fridge. When I get overheated in the garden, I come in and spray it all over. I use it to tame my frizzy mass as well. It costs, literally nothing! Don'cha just love that?! Totally Cherry!

Here's your last design. It all can be found in Design Bundles. Yes, I'm still holding on to this shop. Goodness gracious! It changes as often as I change my dern underwear! The whole thing is different. It's all membership, now and the designers get some kind of minuscule percentage of sales, but $20 a month is better than $0, right? This is the collection where some of the goodies come from.

Thanks loads for stopping by! May your day be filled with health and laughter.