Today I decided to stock the larder for the coming winter. The abundance of peaches, some so ripe and ready that they are dropping off the tree, warrants more that the momentary pleasure of eating them with brown sugar and cream for breakfast.
I could eat peaches and cream for three meals a day, and still not eat them all before they drop to the ground for the ants, and something else that bites chunks from them sometime in the night.
I figured I could make peach preserves and have myself a golden taste of August when the snow flies and the wind beats on the windows this December.
I needed Ball jars. I'd given away the jars left over from my last domestic surge, an unpleasant event involving yellow beans several years ago. Since then I learned it was easier-- and therefore more my style-- to vacuum pack, and freeze fruit and veggies. And then, I stopped doing even that. Who wants yellow beans in the winter? Although, as I write that I feel a twinge of awareness that many people have far less on their plates than I do, and would devour yellow beans anytime, and here I am sticking my over-fed nose up at eating them in December.
So it's a little of that guilt, too, that makes me decide to can peaches today. That, and the idea of peaches on oatmeal in the middle of a New England blizzard. My mouth waters in anticipation.
I left the store having overestimated how many Ball jars I'd need. I stacked four 12-packs in the passenger's seat. The car treated me like a negligent mother, flashing the seatbelt light, then "pinging" in an ever-increasing tempo until I pulled over and buckled up my jar babies.
Of the 48 jars I bought, I filled four with peach preserves. Lots of labor to produce quintuplets. Loads of peaches to peel, and slice, but peaches are juicy and they take up much less space after simmering for a while. Still, four jars will get me through the month of December.
I had a moment of being very hard on myself-- about the time I took a nap while waiting for the sugar to "draw the juices" from the peaches. The recipe said this would take two or three hours and I was sleepy. As I was drifting off I chastised myself. If I was in a little house on a prairie and my family depended on what I preserved for their survival through the months of winter, would I take a nap? Probably not, but only because the house in my imagination had only one room and I had five crying children under the age of ten wandering near an open fireplace while I tried to get comfortable on my cornhusk mattress.
In real life, I had a nice nap, and woke to finish "putting up" my four pints of peaches. Good thing I have an empty nest. But I just might can some salsa and tomato sauce tomorrow. And maybe put some of my seashells in some of the other jars. That's a nice touch of summer that will see me through the winter when the peaches are gone.
~~~~~
"In the depths of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."~ Albert Camus
Comments
Have you ever made red pepper jelly? Maybe you could make some with the other jars and give them away for Xmas gifts.
And naps? Are a good thing :-)
Peace - D
Really enjoy hearing about your adventures.
Made my own soap too.
I was just talking to my mother last week, when I was in the States, and asking her if she thought home canning would make a comeback what with the buy local/ eat local mindset of many in the USA right now.
Good to see you at it and you'll love those peaches so much more this winter, knowing you made them. I used to freeze flats of cane berries, too. Nothing like having a Marion berry pie with warm cream on a bleak February day!
But those preserves look terrific!
I have had my first fruit of the season. The blackberries are ripe enough to just start falling to the pathways like so many splats of chewing tobacco.
So, while walking the newly-castrated Cailean, I have been reaching into the hedgerows and coming home with two bags ... one with glistening blackberries, the other with the dog's poop. I try not to confuse them!
My Cheerios are really quite special these dim mornings. As I don't use sugar, the zip of fresh fruit is really relished.
Thirty years ago I tried my hand at canning tomatoes. Didn't we call the bottles "Mason Jars"?
Had to laugh at Sarah's description of the WMDs she was left with after her root beer bottling efforts. The beekeeper's outfit!
A neighbour's tree has ripe apples, which seems a bit early. Last year, I believe I went apple-picking in late September. We had apple crumble through the winter months.
Autumn ain't all bad!
Ross
This post brought back some warm memories of canning, freezing and the like - and of enjoying the fruits of one's labor on a cold stormy winter day.
These wouldn't last to be canned--they'll be eaten fresh. But I'll envy you yours when winter comes. My favorite fruit, and I love all of them but apples. You get an A+ for domesticity.
And yes, Ross, those are Mason jars. At least they used to be. :-)
I haven't for a long time, but I don't think there is anything as lovely as the colors of fruit and veggies in glass jars....
I also think the sea shells is a good idea too.
I'm with Janice, I would love to come over this winter and have peaches and cream.....Yummmm
LOL:Wanda
In the Texas hill country near Austin, we pass by a number of peach stands closed for the season. We've yet to see them open for business, and we come this way every other month.
I'll make it for you if you like. :-)