Thursday, September 15, 2011

Journal - Peaches, peaches, peaches

Well, it’s that time of year again. At the end of August, Bobbi let me know that her and Mike’s peach tree was ready to be plundered. Joni and I went out one afternoon and brought home about 60 peaches, the tree produces tons of peaches but they’re kind of small. The peaches were already very ripe so I got busy canning them up and ended up with about 2 quarts, plus enough for Joni to make a cobbler.
While I was canning, I got the idea in my head that I wanted to try making some jam, something I’ve never attempted before. I looked at a few recipes online and decided to give it a try. Since I didn’t know what I was doing, I started out with a small amount, about two cups of peaches. It was a good thing I didn’t use a lot because I cooked it too long, and by the time it cooled it was really hard. It tasted okay though. The Hard stuff was kind of chewy and reminded me of eating dried apricots or something like that. I thought that might make a tasty candy so I tucked that idea away for later.
Anyway, I knew the two quarts of peaches I had wouldn’t make a lot of jam so I asked Bobbi if the tree had any left. She said there were a few so we went back and got a few more. Also, Mom had offered to buy me a case of peaches from her store. They were on sale for a very reasonable price so we came home with lots of peaches.
The peaches from the store weren’t quite ripe yet, so I had to wait a couple of days before I could do anything with them. They were really huge though so I was hoping to get several quarts. After two more days of canning I had a total of 8 quarts.
There was a little left over so I also tried another small batch of jam. Well, this second batch turned out great! After it had completely cooled, the consistency was just right for spreading on toast, and it tasted very good. The first batch I had thought was too sweet, so I cut back on the sugar by half and I think that was about right. So I spent a couple of days eating toast and jam and enjoyed it quite a lot.
My first experience with making jam was fun and challenging. When you cook jam, the test to see if it’s done is to let it run off the spoon. They say it should run off in a single clear stream, but of course I can’t go by how it looks. Instead I have to go by how thick it feels as I’m stirring. I’m guessing each batch will come out a little different, but hopefully I’ll be able to come up with several good jars of peach jam
This morning I tried my third batch, a larger one this time with a full quart of peaches. I was happy to find that each quart will make four small jars of jam, about twice as much as I had thought it would make. I canned three jars, and put the rest in the fridge to eat right away. As I’ve been typing this, I’ve heard two of the three jars pop so wish me luck!

Jeremiah 17:10 "“I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”


Matthew 3:10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

2 comments:

  1. It is so much fun watching you get excited over, of all things canning and making jam. I've created this lil Suzie Home-maker now didn't I? lol

    Nah, give all the credit to God. He is the awesome creator, He uses you to make...jam! :)

    And it was quite good!!! :)

    You're a peach!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So when is our next jam session? lol

    I love you!

    ReplyDelete