The Old Folks Travel

It was such nice day we opted to make our annual trip to the peach orchard.  I seldom leave home and it was like Christmas for me.  We like white peaches — Georgia Bell — and to get fresh ones travel 60 or 70 miles.  Crow Mountain Orchard is our choice and even though it’s a long drive, the old folks enjoy the trip.

Crow Mountain

This year I was so disappointed — when we used to travel the little country road leading to the orchard it would be lined with wildflowers and would you believe this time the Round Up truck had been by.  I could have cried — I always enjoyed the wildflowers —  even if it’s hard to identify them at 55 miles an hour.  I came home with only one picture of a wildflower.

The drive up there and back was beautiful — our route takes us down beautiful Sand Mountain on the west side and just as we get down the mountain we cross the Tennessee River. We talked about how long that gap is going down the mountain — it must be four miles long and it’s breathtaking.  As we travel through the edge of the town of Scottsboro — we discuss stopping at Unclaimed Baggage, but decided against it (they always have so many items to look at).  We need to have a sale instead of buying.  Then our route takes us north and across Cumberland Mountain and what a sight that is.  Of course, this part of the country has had so much rain this summer everything is so green and vibrant.

Now we arrive at the orchard and on the way in we see young apple trees — no more than six feet tall loaded with fruit.  They are much too close together — perhaps this fall and winter they will move some to another location.  Then inside the market is all this fruit.

Nectarines

They have grapes, nectarines, apples of various kinds and a variety of peaches.  Crow Mountain is in the very northern edge of Alabama and, apparently, has just the right conditions for growing fruit.  As the year moves on they’ll have different kinds of apples — Mutzu is our favorite, but we’ve always driven to Ellijay, Georgia for them and we pack apples away to enjoy most of the winter.

It’s an expensive trip and purchase, but I laughed and told John,”We enjoy expensive food!”  We used to buy  bushel of peaches for eight or ten dollars.  Hold onto your hat — we paid $38 for one bushel and, in addition, drove all that way.  That’s okay — we don’t smoke or drink so we’ll spend the children’s inheritance on food.  Now ain’t this country living?

Peaches