We did it. It took three times as long as we thought it would, but our fundraiser was a success. By the middle of the morning we had finally covered our wholesale costs for the peaches, and started turning a profit. I saw preliminary numbers, and they were solid, although lower than they would have been had we sold out as we wanted to. By two this afternoon, all of us volunteers were completely played out, and our club president had arranged for a local charity that assists homeless and very low income folks to come and pick up the last half pallet of peaches. (He was telling me about the plans he made, using the same tone of voice and phrasing that you would use when someone you love is exceptionally frail. "We need to start thinking about what to do about grandma..." or "Boomer just isn't getting around like he was when he was a puppy...") I've heard it bandied about that you need to assume it will take three run-throughs (yearly, quarterly, whatever) of a fundraiser until it is really solid and successful. I feel like we have already seen a qualified success, much like the combined efforts on the pie throw down (which might actually have beaten the record -- still waiting for the final numbers to be made official.) I don't want to say we made mistakes, but we definitely learned a few things not to bother with for next year, again like the throw down. The last month has been a whole lot of work and a whole lot of trial and error. We have all gained valuable experience and established some terrific foundations upon which to build new traditions. I'm exhausted from it all, but it is a very happy sort of tired.
The best part was, as wiped out as I was the first two days, this last one wasn't as bad. I knew I was done for the day, and I let myself unwind and take a nap after the sales wrapped up this afternoon. I woke when Athena and Rabbit came calling to tell me that it had started raining on them in the backyard, and we all three stood at the door and watched fat, heavy raindrops pelt the back yard. (My daughter texted me pictures of what the storm looked like from a distance, and I told her yes, I was quite aware that the small but strong storm was over me.) After my nap and quiet rain-watching, I was so relaxed and refreshed. It's a nice change from my constant whining about being too sore and tired to sleep.
So here I am, with an 18 pound case of peaches and not very many mouths to put them in. I had to start thinking of ways to prepare them immediately. Tomorrow I'll be cutting up 15-20 of them into zippy bags and freezing them for later. I put five in the fridge for later in the week. I'm sure I'll have peaches and cottage cheese for breakfast. That still leaves a lot to get to right away. I tried to make a cobbler this evening, and got a little carried away. Cooking is an art, not a science, right? As soon as I started adding sugar and spices, I thought about how much I miss things like molasses cookies. I put in a thick coating of ginger and other classic pie spices, and I drizzled molasses over the whole thing. I made a grain-free "crust" topping, but not quite enough to totally seal up the top. I forgot to put any sort of thickener into the peach part, so when it came out, I just looked at the nearly-black soup and thought, "My god, what have I done?" Then I got a spoon. And I repeated that thought, with a wholly different intent. It was incredible with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, even though it was unequivocally peach soup. I have yet another solid foundation from which to build masterpieces. The future looks bright. Or at least peachy.
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