Peachy Poetry: Happy National Poetry Month!

(all photos by Jane Heitman Healy (c) 2011)

If you follow this blog in late summer, you know I love peaches from Western Colorado. So when teacher-poet Janet Clare Fagal submitted these poems, my mouth watered! Enjoy the poem, leave a comment for Janet, and enjoy a fresh peach when you get a chance.                  

                                  After Spring Comes Summer: A Trio of Peachy Poems

                                                           The Peach

                                                           Rub, squeeze, chomp, sip
                                                           sweet fleshy globe.
                                                           Golden-pink like sunset.
                                                           Slips down your throat
                                                           cool as night.
                                                           Feels like summer.
                                                           Refreshes.

                                                               Orchard Treasure

                                                               Silky summer
                                                               fruit
                                                               poised in the farmstand
                                                               basket.
                                                               Piled high, plump,
                                                               delicious.
                                                               Peaches!

                                                                  Peach Cobbler

                                                                  Swirled like pearls,
                                                                  soft and plump,
                                                                  round like globes,
                                                                  gone in gulps.

It's Peach Season!

Yes! It is time to celebrate the season of abundant produce, and particularly peaches! We are so fortunate that a local hardware store trucks in lugs each year from Western Colorado. This year's load (or lode, as I think of it) comes from Black Bear Orchards in Palisade. Yes, we got a whole lug. No, that is not too much for two people--at least not the two people at our house. 

This year's poem for peach season is a haiku: 

slices of sunshine

slide gentle juice down my throat,

cozy taste of home.

See last year's peach season poem here.

What flavors do you savor this season? Here, everything's peachy!

(photos by Jane Heitman Healy, c 2014)

Life's a Peach!

(photo copyright 2011, Jane Heitman Healy)

It's peach season! Fortunately, our local supermarket is selling lugs of peaches from Talbott Farms in Palisade, Colorado, my old stomping grounds in the Grand Valley. They were expensive, but worth it for more than just their flavor. A taste of a Palisade peach is, well--

This Peach

This peach glows
Like a gold nugget,
One side red-orange, sun-swiped,
One side shaded
Yellow.

This peach overflows.
Bites of flawless fruit slip
From the red stone. A flavor fountain
Of juice glazes my chin, my
Hands.

This peach goes
A thousand miles, tucked
In a lug and trucked, to meet my lips
And bring the taste of
Home.

(copyright 2013, Jane Heitman Healy)

(photo copyright 2011, Jane Heitman Healy)

What flavors make you think of home?

For more peachy goodness, see this post from last August.

Everything's Peachy!

(photo copyright 2011, Jane Heitman Healy)

'Tis the season of abundance, as fruit ripens and vegetables mature for good, fresh eating. In August, the Western Colorado peach harvest is in full swing. The area around Palisade is apparently perfect for peach growing. Orchards abound and sell their goods on site and at farmer's markets. There's nothing like biting into a big, ripe peach and savoring the flavor while juice drips down your chin!

Here's a visit to one Palisade orchard:

Palisade held its annual Peach Festival last week--a place for fun and for finding a plethora of peach recipes, including interesting ones from area chefs.

(photo copyright 2011, Jane Heitman Healy)

I was delighted to discover two suppliers of Colorado peaches here in my South Dakota city! One hardware store and one large grocery chain bring in lugs by the semi trailer full. For a few weeks each summer, everything's peachy!

(photo copyright 2011, Jane Heitman Healy)

Your reading connection this time? The peach section of your favorite cookbook or maybe Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach.