In 2002, I think it was, my wife, Lydia, bought me a dwarf peach tree. I like peaches, but have no experience growing trees. Fortunately, the trees have most of that covered and the rest is available on the Internet. After I had it in the ground, I wondered, Did I just plant a twig? It sure looked like it. So, I named our new garden resident, “Peach Twig.”

For the first couple years, Peach Twig grew, but only produced leaves. Still it was heartening to know that I had planted more than a twig. The name, however, stuck.

Then, a few years back, he (or is it she) grew buds that turned into flowers and then into peaches. However, being totally new at the whole nurturing peaches to maturity thing, she (or is it he) dropped them fairly early. Sad, but still exciting to see progress.

This year, though, was different. Peach Twig was huge and leafy and full of blossoms. With a q-tip, I acted the bee and snuggled the flowers, hoping for pollination. (I did see a few real bees, too, showing her some bee love.)

Many of the blossoms turned into tiny peaches. The tiny peaches hung on the tree and got bigger. The bigger peaches ripened. Yesterday, I noticed some of the peaches had fallen, but they seemed reasonably “done.” I took a decent looking fallen peach inside, cleaned it, sliced it open, and tried some its flesh.

It was fantastic.

I went back out to the tree and looked for more “done-looking” ones that were ready to release from the tree (ones that would come off in my hand with the gentlest of tugs.) Of that batch, one or two were not so ready after all, but a couple of others were and they were very peachy. Today I plucked another.

Finally, a peach harvest. How exciting!