Canning and Jamming

Glorious Peaches, do you remember these? They needed a couple more days to mature to perfection before canning and jamming. That's exactly what consumed my day. There was a beautiful cool breeze, so I threw open the windows and got to work. First thing, we had to have some for fresh eating so I choose some perfect ones for snacks, Peach Upside-Down Cake, and topping cereal or ice cream.
Then I got busy with the first step of canning. After getting a kettle of water boiling, the remaining peaches needed to be scalded only a couple minutes....
then cooled enough to handle so they could be....
peeled, pitted, sliced, jarred, syruped with a light syrup. I used a 1 to 4 mix of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water, ( 1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of water. )
Lid with a canning lid and ring, just hand tightened. Next place in a hot water bath for 20 minutes once the water comes back to a boil. Make sure to put your jars on a rack in the canner, something to space the canning jars from the bottom or they will crack. Always turn your boil down to a gentle one.
A bit of prep work, but the rewards are these amazing canned peaches with less sugar than the store bought ones, and the flavor is like biting into a fresh picked tree ripened peach. 2die4!
I also made Peach Jam. I forgot to take step by step pictures for you but the recipe is really so simple.

With any number of prepared peaches, blanched, peeled and pitted, cut into bite size chunks, put in bottom of large kettle, and cook until heated, mash, but leaving chunky as you like.

Measure the amount.

Add the same amount of sugar as peaches. Bring back to a slow boil, stirring in sugar, cooking another 20 minutes.

A foam will form at the top. Spoon the foam off before jarring, for a sweet taste of your hard work.

Proceed to ladle into prepared jars, ( I prefer 1/2 pint jars ), clean the rim, cap and hot water bath for another 10 minutes once the water starts to boil. Make sure to turn your boil down 1/2 way to a slow boil to avoid cracking and bad seals.

There you have it. Beautiful Peach Jam. Every jar sealed, I'm a happy canner.

I had 8 cups of pulp, so used 8 cups of sugar, I know, SWEET, but so good. The end result was 14 half pints of awesome jam for our winter toast and ice cream.
Onto the next project....Here's a hint. All you need is any old sand from the back yard, mine coming from the bottom of the hill that the garage sits on....and.....
that's it for today....gotta finish that project.

Have a GREAT Weekend

BlessYourHearts