Peach Futures

At this time of year, talented gardeners like Chilebrown and his wife, Ms. Goofy, have cornered the market on heirloom and cherry tomatoes, chili peppers and Gravenstein apples. You may think of him solely as a meat guy, but their tomato plants are in full production mode, their tree is dropping apples like crazy and the habanero peppers are blazing (literally and figuratively) along.

For newbie gardeners like me, however, the results are somewhat less impressive. You have heard my laments before so I won't repeat them; suffice it to say that when Chilebrown offered to trade me some current produce for future peaches, I jumped at the chance.

We met at the Catahoula Coffee Company and Roastery in Richmond to share a cup of coffee and to make the drop. Dr. Biggles showed up, too, a pleasant surprise, and helped us to break the ice. Meeting other bloggers is like first dates with people you met through the "personals" ads - they always choose somewhere safe and neutral first to size you up. The conversation turned immediately to (big surprise!) food, food and techniques for smoking food. I took away some great ideas, by the way - smoked onions! - what a concept!

And, during the course of the conversation, Chilebrown and Ms. Goofy laid on me a couple of weighty bags of produce from their garden, only some of which is pictured above!

The apples are already in a crisp, some of the tomatoes are roasting in the oven with the ripest ones set aside for salads this week, and the chili peppers are leering at me from the countertop, daring me to try them. I've got some pasture-raised ground beef in the freezer and some beans in the pantry; I think tomorrow I'm going to make chili, thanks to some truly talented gardeners.