Peaches!

     Today I happened to stop into a marketplace that is just around the corner from our farm. Imagine my delight when I found half-bushels of peaches for sale! Needless to say, one of those half-bushels ended up in our van, and I began to plan my afternoon of peach processing. Peach season has just begun and will last until the middle to end of September.
      The first recipe I tried was a spiced peach jam, turned out nicely- perhaps a little too sweet- but beautiful colour and texture. I have finally decided to make all of my jams without using certo- so there is a bit of a learning curve in regards to how much sugar needs to be added. It takes a little longer to make jam without using packaged pectin- but I feel the end result is definitely worth the extra time.



 I'll try again tomorrow with a plain peach preserve as well as a strawberry-peach preserve. I still have strawberries in the freezer from my visits to a nearby pick-your-own. I can't wait to see what the blend of strawberry and peach looks like.

My next endeavor was something I've never tried before....chutney. I have an old recipe book with recipes form the late 40's- and one of the recipe was for a peach chutney. It took longer to cook down than I expected- but it looks lovely in the jars. I think it turned out quite well. I'll let it age for 3 months or so before I try it, just to let the flavours blend together- but from how it smelled as I was jarring it- it will be quite tasty.