Thursday, September 10, 2009

A PEACH OF A DAY

A bunch of years ago Drin and I went to Shoup, Idaho, to pick peaches. A couple days ago we decided to revisit the orchards there as we knew it must be time for pears, and if we got lucky, maybe some peaches. The drive is beautiful up over the continental divide into Idaho, then down the valley toward Salmon. As we dropped over the divide, we came upon this gathering of vintage vehicles, so of course, I had to stop and snap a couple photos. What bright colors!
I'm thinking that maybe Lewis and Clark would have been happy for some kind of transportation like that parked by the historical sign telling of their trek over the mountains.
When we got to North Fork we turned west and drove up a very steep canyon along the Salmon River. This entire canyon area is heavily populated by mountain sheep like these. We saw many as we drove along.
This bunch let us stop nearby and weren't at all bothered--until I got out of the car! Then they took off up the hillside. (They especially like hanging out in the orchards to feast on all the dropped fruit!)
The peaches at the orchard were really small, but wonderfully delicious. (We didn't have to taste-test very many. . . .) Drin was sure that Jim and Colt would be in peach heaven! We also picked some pears, but pears are picked while still green--if they're left to ripen on the tree, they become very fibrous and virtually inedible. So we weren't able to test those, but brought them home to ripen in a few days. (I'm looking forward to making up a batch of pear butter--yum yum.) This is a wonderful sign we saw along the highway on our way home. Click on the photo to enlarge and read the yellow sign. GO IDAHO!!!
We love visiting Idaho, but "home again, home again, picking is done." We had a really fun, serendipity kind of day. We're looking forward to going back again in a few weeks to pick apples! Yummy apple pies and apple butter coming soon. (Did I mention that we stopped at a quilt shop on our way home? No? Can't imagine how I forgot that little detail!!!)

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