Peach Season

I'm having so much fun sharing memories from Lesotho with you, why stop now?

Seasonality of fruits and vegetable is something I already miss (and look forward to readjusting to in Ghana). Come March/April during the Lesotho peach season I'll probably be in tears. During this season there are peaches everywhere, except in the shops. There are so many, students would bring me peaches in class from their trees, my host family would leave (at least) two peaches on my step each morning, and friends would send me home with bags from their compounds where they were grown.

By volunteers they were turned into cobblers, pies, and turnovers. Lacking sufficient cooking skills I was satisfied with them as a healthy snack. The Basotho canned thousands of them and dried the remaining half. I learned real quick how much work this is. Washing peanut butter and mayonnaise remains out of glass jars without a dishwasher is not easy. Then peeling thousands of peaches for more than a month gets old. I would occasionally help after school, more as entertainment to my host family who were mesmerized by my unbelievably slow pace, oh and my ability to inhale peaches.

I was eating upwards of nine a day... until my body said no more. At one point my host mother gave me a lecture about food security. Laugh. Isn't that what I am here for? She told me I needed to remember when the only fresh food available was cabbage I would be thankful for the canned and dried peaches. Sigh. When I realized how accurate her statement was I vowed to work even harder the next spring.

As with everything else, nothing goes to waste. These were two of the perfectly edible peaches left on my door step one morning. In America there is no way I would have touched either of the above peaches. In Lesotho I learned to cut of the bad parts and compost or feed the pigs the bruised parts. In the words of middle sister, "feed the ground and the ground will feed you." Same can be said of the animals.