Delectable Peaches

I am lucky enough to have a great big beautiful peach tree in my back yard. It was an unexpected gift, since we had purchased our house in January and no one had mentioned anything about a peach tree. Coincidentally, we spent most of that summer in California for my husband's job. We came home in the fall to find each branch bent to the ground covered with golden peaches. It was amazing that the branches didn't break. The kids were so excited that they ate peaches until they couldn't move.

That was ten years ago, and I can't tell you how much this tree means to me. It sits right outside my office window. I watch it change day by day through the seasons. It sparkles with winters snow, shimmy's with springs leaves, shades from the hot summer sun, and shares it's golden fall harvest. The anticipation almost becomes too much, but it is so worth the wait. This week I watched, as softball size peaches dropped one by one onto the grassy bed below. Then as if hunting Easter eggs, my children gathered the delicate fruit. Of course, it isn't long before the sticky juice is running to the tips of their elbows. Grinning from ear to ear, they are savoring the moment knowing it will be a long year until next years harvest. I know too, that I don't have long before they have grown and moved away, so I am savoring the moment with them.

We often aren't even aware of when our food creates a tradition and when our traditions create food. So many people feel that their traditions will be lost when becoming gluten-free, but the truth is that new traditions will be found. We just have to embrace the gift and watch it change day by day, season by season, savoring the unexpected!