Peachy-Keen

I finally dug the in-season-frozen peaches out of the freezer today and put them to good use.  The stars aligned and I had clean jars, all necessary ingredients, time, and motivation at hand.  Back when it was peach season I was in no mood to can.  Now in the cold months of winter I get exited about boiling water and simmering down jams and relishes for 40 minutes over the stove.   Very excited.  Today I made "Sun Relish" (peaches and peppers) and "Peach Lavender Jam", both from this cookbook:

Amazon.com: The Complete Book of Year-Round Small-Batch Preserving: Over 300 Delicious Recipes (9781552094891): Ellie Topp, Margaret Howard: Books

Still have blueberries and strawberries waiting in the freezer, but that will have to wait for another day.

Sun Relish reducing:

The finished product ready for a taste test.  The book suggests serving with things like 

cheddar or cream cheese.  I am also thinking it would compliment some Mahi Mahi burgers.

The empty jam pot.  The steeping lavender smelled amazing, 

and the resulting jam is both unusual and delicious.  I am dying to try it on a warm biscuit or pop-over.

Yummy.

Sun Relish- Makes 4 cups; recipe courtesy of The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving.

6 peaches (peeled, pitted and chopped)

6 sweet yellow, and 1 hot yellow pepper (seeded & chopped)

1 lemon, halved

1/2 C white wine vinegar

2 1/2 C granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp pickling salt

Place peaches,  peppers, lemon and vinegar in saucepan.  Bring to a boil over med-high heat, reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered for 30 minutes, or until softened.  Remove and discard lemon, addsugar and salt; return to a boil.  Cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes until mixture thickens stirring frequently.  (Note: I had to reduce for much longer, probably because I started with frozen peaches.)

Ladle into jars leaving 1/2 inch head space; process 10 minutes for half-pint, or 15 minutes for pint jars.

HAPPY CANNING!

Farm Talk and Food Preservation

I have not been good about snapping pictures these last few days, my memory card is just about full. Anyway, yesterday brought a visit to the farm just down the road for some corn and peaches. I threw the kernels of a dozen ears in the fridge for another day and bought 12 lbs of "seconds" for peach pie filling. The peaches insisted on being used up that day or more than a spot here and there would have been bruised and rotten. I will have to go back and score some more of those peaches soon, I still need to make some peach and pepper preserves. I love putting all this food up for winter......those peaches will make a quick delicious pie or cobbler come Jaunuary!

I had a very interesting talk with the farmer while I was shopping.....for starters he is against all things farmer's market and CSA related. He feels they take advantage of the naive paying customer (the CSA's) and that the markets and CSA's take away from his roadside business. All of the folks 'pretending' to be farmers (i.e. don't farm at least 5 acres of land) don't belong at a booth in his opinion and he doesn't understand why people are OK not seeing the farm behind the food. Oddly enough he sells produce grown by someone else and sells his to others, so I wasn't quite sure why he had such a problem with this- peaches, corn, and apples are his gig. He also wants people to realize you "need to save the farmer, not the farm". Thought provocing stuff.

He also mentioned I should get ready for the produce to become less available and much more expensive. All the rain ruined/prevented most succession plantings and has lowered yields over all. (Guess I should be stocking up on the corn and zucchini now while the gettin' is good!) It's always nice to see the face behind the farm and hearing his views on the world of farming was interesting.....usually we just talk about how we like to cook our corn!

On a more mundane note I just came in from doing a foliar feed and I LOVE my new pump sprayer! What a difference that made. The harvest bucket has a nice heft to it, plenty of tomatoes and cukes, a zucchini and some lettuce for those BLT's. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!