It’s that time of year – the time of free bounty. The other day it was a brown paper bag, a Monadnock Oil and Vinegar bag, hung on the front door of the shop. It was brimming with summer squash, tiny ripe eggplants and a green pepper. Yesterday two, 1/2 peck bags of apples showed up. Today it was garlic at the barn in a little gift bag on my saddle rack.
Food seems to is appearing for me so I thought it must be time to splurge on a new feeder and seed for the birds. The bears haven’t gone to hibernate yet but there is so much food in the forest I doubt they will bother my feeders, though I can’t count of the raccoons to leave them alone.
I saw pecks and 1/2 pecks at Mack’s Apples on Monday, and had wondered why fruit is measured in this arcane method. What to do but google it.
A peck is an imperial and United States customary unit of dry volume,[1] equivalent to 2 gallons or 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints (7.6 liters). Two pecks make a kenning (obsolete), and four pecks make a bushel. Although no longer frequently used, produce such as apples are still commonly sold by the peck.
In Scotland, the peck was used as a dry measure until the introduction of imperial units as a result of the Weights and Measures Act of 1824. The peck was equal to about 9 litres (1.98 Imp gal) (in the case of certain crops, such as wheat, peas, beans and meal) and about 13 litres (2.86 Imp gal) (in the case of barley, oats and malt). A firlot was equal to 4 pecks and the peck was equal to 4 lippies or forpets.
Firlots? Lippies?? Now to pick a peck of pickled peppers…
Therapeutic Misadventures 
I was given a bushel of apples once. That is a LOT of apples! I think a half peck would be fine.
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A bushel is a whole lot of apples. I love the fact that this industry has managed to get its customers to do all the work with “You Pick!” like it’s a reward. I love apples but in moderation…
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What the peck?!?!?
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Classic Julie Allyn!
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It is wonderful when people share their bounty.I have very little interest in “picking my own”, in truth, it isn’t much cheaper than letting them pick and package it for me. Interesting tidbit about the peck – who knew?!
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Thanks Laura, I forgot you sharing your bounty of sugar for my bees!!
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Sharing is good and what would we do without Google? I can’t imagine having wild bears in the woods. That would certainly put me off walking. My blog is dead at the moment, problems with the domain hosts I think. I have techy people looking as we speak so hopefully I will be able to share with you again soon. 🙂
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Missing your posts Marie! Bears are not a threat if you don’t run into a mom and her cubs. I always take a dog and make lots of noise. If we are out riding we wear bells on our horses to alert hunters as well as their prey that we are in the area.
Hope to ‘see’ you again soon!
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Seems like my blog has been hacked. Looks like I may have lost all of it. I’m trying to get it sorted now but I’m wondering if I should bother starting over or not. Feeling rather unhappy
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Do NOT stop!! Marie, you write so beautifully. I know it may not appear that I am as faithful a follower as I really am. Your personal stuff is amazing. When you write about your gardens and your history and your wonderful Commando, I am privileged to see a part of you. I don’t know what happened with your blog. There must be a way to retrieve it. Did you ever notice the word retriever is really re-try-ever??
At the very least, write to me? Old fashioned pen-pals?
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