BREMER PEACHES Best By Far!

Until Saturday it had been two years since I tasted a fresh peach due to a bad freeze in our area killing last year's crop. Little did I know that my planned trip to Paducah for a morning sewing class and an afternoon spent on getting a photo for the Paducah Summer Festival ready for framing, would end up with an insider's tour of a peach orchard in southern Illinois.

While waiting for my photo to be reprinted at an office supply store, which was a test of patience when it took over three hours, I met another customer beside me. We struck up a conversation about his peach orchard business. It was easy to see that he had great pride and passion for growing many acres of peaches and nectarines these past thirty years.

He was getting copies printed of a reflective letter for his customers about the history and future of his peach orchard. As he waited his turn he asked me if I could do a favor for him by editing and lettering a few lines on his original paper before copies were made? He had no idea he was standing beside one of the world's biggest peach fans! Of course I was happy to help him! In return for his appreciation he said his first crop of the season had just come in and he invited me to come by his orchard so he could give me a box of his delicious peaches. He was now throwing in a tour of his orchard. You bet I would be there!

Later that afternoon there I was heading to southern Illinois, a short drive from Paducah. It was beautiful country there, and rather amazing how quickly the landscape changed into rolling hills after crossing the Ohio River. Boy, I bet it is pretty in the fall when the foliage changes!

Soon I was at the orchard's main shed where pecks of peaches sat waiting for the next group of customers to arrive. It was so clean you could have eaten off of the floor! Dale and his wife Jane greeted me warmly and introduced me to some of their "family," their migrant workers who help make this orchard the success it is.

Here is one of two little boys who lives here on the property. He is five years old and loves to draw. He jumped up on this picnic table to show me how he can draw one of the tractors pulling a peach wagon.

My trip to the orchard was highlighted by a guided tour of the property in a John Deere four wheeler with Dale. What a peach crop! Seventy acres of twenty different varieties of peaches plus a few acres of nectarines creating its own Garden of Eden.

Here's Dale enjoying the first nectarine of the season! If you are ever in the area, you should stop by and discover what I think are the best peaches by far!