It’s been a trying time for us gardeners here. Fending off garden pests seems to be the topic of discussion for our last several posts. Recently, it’s having to fend off possums from our brandywine and sun gold tomato plants. Now it’s having to beat our dogs to our white peaches. Obviously they have good taste just like the possums. These dogs just LOVE to eat the white peaches, on and off the tree.
Peach thief smelling the goods first, checking for ripeness.
These clever canine critters have their strategy. Yes, we’ve watched them from a distance and studied their peach stealing behaviors. Dante, the big Rhodesian Ridgeback, will walk under the lower branches and keep nudging at them, using the attributes of his big snout and tall back. Sierra, the smaller white Boxer, will play with her balls and “accidentally” run into the trunk of the tree. The delicate white peaches will then succumb to all the snout nudging, body slamming dog techniques and drop to the ground, falling prey to the canine pests.
Peach thief taste testing the peach, checking for readiness
It can be quite funny to watch our dogs sit under the tree, stare up at the cache of peaches, then strategize on how to bring them to the ground. But it’s not so funny when we see them tear into the soft, sweet, juicy, drippy flesh of our prized peach bounty. Like any gardener who would defend his fruit bounty, we’d chase them off with our brooms, shooing them away from the ripe fallen peaches and devour them ourselves. Yeah, they can and should watch from afar as us gardeners eat what is rightfully ours, after a seasons hard work of trimming, watering and fertilizing the tree!
Peach thief waiting, hoping for a hailstorm of peaches to drop
Obviously it’s a fight against nature, pests, possums, rats, dogs and all to keep them away from the gardens bounty. We don’t mind sharing the fruit with the pups, certainly not all. We’re kind, generous folks who feel that the dogs are entitled to some fruit, but at least leave some for us too!
Happy gardener collecting peaches for human consumption
There’s so many white peach dishes we have planned during the next week. It’s really exciting to finally see our little tree burdened with so much fruit. So we collected the fallen fruit, which are the really ripe and ready ones and made another simple salad with them. Our garden sorrel is a bright, tart and fresh accompaniment to the lush, sweet peaches. The mild, grassy flavor of the sorrel also brights out the true sweetness of the peaches too. We had more peaches than sorrel in the salad because too much of the sorrel’s sourness would overpower the sweet peach fruit. The vinaigrette is a very light and cheery dressing that ties the two contrasting ingredients together nicely, but it doesn’t overpower the star of the salad, the white peaches.
print recipeWhite Peach & Arugula/Sorrel Salad w/ Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette
Yield: Serves 2-3
Total Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups (480ml) loosely packed Arugula or Sorrel leaves
- 2 medium ripe White Peaches, sliced
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) Honey
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) Grape Seed oil
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) Balsamic Vinegar
- optional - fresh Lemon Zest from 1/2 medium lemon
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) fresh Lemon Juice
- 1/4 teaspoon (1ml) vanilla extract
- Kosher or Sea Salt, to taste
- fresh cracked Black Pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Whisk together dressing ingredients (honey, grapeseed oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon zest (optional), lemon juice, vanilla, salt, & pepper) in bowl.
- If using sorrel leaves, tear into bite sized pieces. Put torn up sorrel leaves or arugula leaves and sliced peaches in large bowl.
- Dress with salad with vinaigrette. Top with additional lemon zest if desired.
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Recipe Note for Salt: All recipes containing salt are based on kosher or sea salt amounts, not table salt. If using table salt, reduce the amount used to taste.
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Your peach-eating dogs cracked me up! Mattie our 80-pound yellow Lab, has discovered the lemon cucumbers. We are finding them all over the yard covered with little teeth marks. She rolls them around and brings them on her bed . She doesn’t actually eat them, but they are round after all, and perhaps she’s thinking, “How kind of them to plant a Ball Tree, just for me!” cheers
What gorgeous looking peaches – I am not surprised that the dogs steal them.
Those photos of your dogs with the peaches are fantastic. I had a shih tzu who would go
berserk – barking and spinning in circles when I would cut up mangoes – he adored them. Crazy pups – love ’em.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog eat a peach. I’m actually quite jealous of your beautiful peach trees. Looking forward to all of your peach recipes. There is a very small window of opportunity for purchasing good peaches in my area. So, I must take advantage of it.
This post makes my desire to have a dog peak, yet again. Your dogs are not only adorable, but they clearly take after their “pack leaders” and are incredibly intelligent and have super refined tastebuds!
What a great life you all live! Thanks for the great recipe!
Brooke
Oooooh! Looks luscious! Those peaches are just gorgeous, too! I totally want to be like you guys and your gardening ways….the dear hubs bought me 4 fruit trees for my birthday last week…hopefully, they will live. Peach is one of them. 😉 Tips? lol
Thanks for a great laugh. Dogs just never seem to amaze me. I think humans just don’t give them enough credit for intelligence. And that you caught them in the act is priceless. It’s impossible to be angry with them.
I’m so totally jealous that you have these gorgeous peaches growing in your back yard. I’m lucky to get a crop of pears and crab apples when the squirrels don’t demo them.
Wow the peaches look fresh and beautiful. And the salad is perfect for summer!
Oh, you’re killing me with those dog pictures. Too, too cute. You’re lucky folks to have both delicious peaches and cute critters.
we brought sorrel seed home w/ us from italy last year and it grew like wildfire!!! i honestly had never eaten it before then and now i’m OBSESSED w/ the flavor of it in salads. the lemony flavor! mmmm. too bad we have no seeds left. so sorry for the critters eating your stuff. i’m used to that but it’s only squirrels and slugs in brooklyn.
wowieeeee! love ’em peaches, that peach laden tree is driving me crazeeeee 😉 to get to eat those fresh juicy peaches…mmmmm.. u sure are lucky 🙂
i adore sorrell and now i’m so envious. your pooches are such fun. they keep you on your toes all he time. they are gourmets, we should grant them that.
I will be checking the mail every day for the case of white peaches I know you’ll want to send from your garden! Seriously, I love white peaches in salad, especially paired with tomato, olives, garden-crunchy cucumbers and drizzled with balsamic.
There’s a comic in there somewhere; Adventures of The Peach Thief Pooches! 😀
I’ve been trying to comment over the past couple of entries, but it keeps getting hanged each time I click submit. I’m guessing your blog isn’t liking me much 🙁 Well in any case, do know that even when I don’t tag, I’m a huge stalking fan! 😉
How cute, the doggies just wanted a little bite. Who can blame them, I love white peaches too. 🙂
I’m sure if we had a peach tree poor lil’ Caesar would be out there trying to get them too…dogs with discerning palletts love peaches! I can’t wait to read about the grilled peaches – that’s something I want to try! Thanks for the sweet comments about baby Max – probably the only thing sweeter than your tree of peaches! Nan
Those peaches are looking good!
My hound dog ate an entire double batch of lemon curd that I had cooling on my porch in mid-winter. I was bereft. He also snitched a cooling loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread from the counter top. Argh. In short, I feel your pain.
Aaaaaaand I can’t wait to see the grilled peaches and creme fraiche. (Mmmmmmm… creme fraiche!)
my dog goes crazy for the peach tree, too! and she totally ignores the plums and apricots. weird.
Oh, your tree is SO FULL of peaches!! Looks lovely! And what a nice salad. The vinaigrette with vanilla, I must try that!
Greetings,
Tiina
This is just one really simple reason why I LOVE SUMMER. Awesome stuff.
Don’t have dogs, but I’m not sure I’d share the salad with my husband 😉
Your dogs are adorable!! And talk about added flavour to your salad! Hehehe. I love the pictures.
wow thats a lotta peaches for a tree, you sure you dont want to send some over ???
Gr8 salad, always love using fruits for my salads. Makes them more interesting.
recently added to my christmas list: a prolific peach tree and some adorable, clever, fruit-stealing dogs. do you think a 5-month head start on these items is enough for santa? 🙂
oh gosh…such gorgeous peaches…i’d be sniffing and licking em too
Okay the dogs just cracked me up. They look so micheivious…loved it. Thank you!
Now, I’m gonna chastise myself severly for letting my bunch of sorrel go unnoticed and disgustingly spoilt after a week’s stint in a fridge. Why, oh why didn’t I happen to be receptive to your wisdom a single day earlier? I so much love your white peaches with sorrel recipe! 🙂
Ahahahah! I just fell off my chair look at those dog photos 🙂 The salad looks amazing…perfect for summer days…and yes, I wish I could shop at your exotic fruit store. I love the new banner!
Oh poor babies! Dante and Sierra – auntie will bring you a box of peaches next time I visit!!!!
Yum! This year’s peaches are fantastic. Love the look of your salad.
ooohhhooo I see your dogs are not possum hunters they are peach hunters, how did you manage that. Lucky possum.
Your dogs sound much more discerning than the average dog (I’d hate to tell you some of the things my dog has eaten over the years). Of course, white peaches! — how could anyone resist them?
I am so green with envy over those peaches! Everything else around here is green, too. Bumper crops of grasshoppers and heirloom zucchinis. Don’t those ingredients inspire you, marvelous chefs?? LOL. I’ll try the vinaigrette at least. Not on the grasshoppers though. 😉
So, are your dogs vegetarian? (lol) They are so cute. The salad looks great and I never heard of sorrel before but I checked it out in wiki and by the description they give, it sounds great. If I had some of these leaves I would stuff them and make dolmades as they look like silver beat and today I stuffed silver beat leaves.
lol, I could see my dogs doing that, but being much less subtle about it. Those photos are great, and as always, I am so jealous of your garden and the beautiful produce you guys get from it. One of these days….
I had no idea that dogs would want anything to do with peaches. But it makes sense though, considering that the peaches probably smell fantastic.
Really, what are Dante and Sierra to do? Once those peaches ‘accidentally’ hit the ground, it would be a pity for them to go to waste.
wow congrats on your wonderful, lovely and abundant peach harvest! The photos of your doggies trying to steal the peaches are so beautiful and adorable ^_^
Peaches and puppies, what a sweet combination. Your peaches look wonderful! Thank you for sharing.
“Rhodesian Ridgeback Dogs” keyword search on Google blogs brought me to your posting. I am just learning about blogging, and so am interested in your blog experiences, if you don’t mind. http://www.PetFriendsOnline.blogspot.com is my first blog attempt focusing on Emma, my Rhodesian Ridgeback. Any comments on your blog experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Deborah Hamel
hahaha.. the photos of the dogs and the peaches are priceless!
And the salad is lovely too! I love white peaches, probably as much as your dogs. 🙂
I am absolutely swooning over those peaches and that lovely tree! Who could blame the dogs for trying to swipe a few! If I were your neighbor, you’d have to set a trap for me too! 😉
I’ll bet your salad was just wonderful. It looks it!
Silly pups! They’ve got good taste, at least. I envy you your peach tree. Must plant one here. I know they do well.
And I love sorrel, too. Great-looking salad.
They just want a peach or two. 🙂
Great salad.
Well, you could wait for the tree to grow a lot taller– and watch as your dogs start leaping high enough to win contests, hahaha! That first pic with Sierra is hilarious. It looks like she haphazardly walked into a peach and got the surprise of her life. But they are both equally adorable. Apparently you’ve taught your kids enough values so that they’d share (er… kind of, if not for the brooms and chasing) and now we have this beautiful salad! I love peaches in salad 🙂
Those peaches are to die for! And with Sorrel? Heaven! Just don’t serve me the one the dog licked, K? 😉
Over the top beautiful peaches! What wonderful photos of the dogs – amazing. I gave up trying to get tomatoes this year because one or all of the above go to them first the last three years. Just doesn’t seem worth it. Really gorgeous peaches.
oh, no! I would set up a fort to protect those beauties! I think it’s because they’re my first plants, but I don’t know what I would do if my basil or rosemary plants start getting attacked by garden pests… good luck!!