Preserve a Little Summer : Peach Butter

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Two words: Peach Butter
Peaches + Sugar + Lemon = Summer in a jar = sweet warm sunshine for the middle of winter

Our peach tree did absolutely nothing this year, and by nothing I mean it didn't even blossom.  Heartbreaking -- I was very much looking forward to my first great crop of peaches.  However, peaches in other parts of the country must be doing well, because our local market had boxes and boxes of peaches at very lovely price.  So I got some.

And I set off to make peach butter.  A quick blanch of the peaches in boiling water helps the peels come off, and I peeled, pitted, and chopped about 4+ pounds (I don't have a kitchen scale, so weight measurements are tricky), and set them in a pot to cook down to softness.  I also added the zest and juice of a lemon to both balance the flavour and add acid for canning.

When the peaches were soft, I spooned them into the blender to break down even further, to a smooth, spreadable consistency.  Four blenderfuls later, I had about 7.5 cups of peach puree, to which I added sugar (about 3.5 cups), and put it back on the stove to cook down and thicken up.

Delicious.

The jars had been preparing, so I spooned peach/lemon/sugar mixture into hot jars and put them in the hot water canner to process for about 15 minutes.

When they were done, I had five beautiful half pints and 4 quarter pints ("jelly-sized) of peach butter -- perfect for reminding me in January and February that summer is not a figment of my imagination -- and great for gifts, too!

 

You can find great peach butter recipes in these two books -- one for regular peach butter (like you see here) and one for roasted peach butter, which is also delicious, but takes more peaches (I made some of that, too).

Recipe
Ingredients
Peaches: peeled, pitted, chopped
Lemon: juice & zest (one lemon for 7-8 cups of puree)
Sugar: about 1/2 cup for each cup of pureed peach

Directions
Cook the chopped peaches (add a little water to the bottom of the pot) until they are soft and smashable.  Spoon peaches into blender or food processor in small batches.  Puree/blend until smooth and spreadable but not liquid.  Pour peaches into clean pot and add in lemon and sugar; stir in until sugar is dissolved.  Heat mixture at medium heat until it reaches a jam-like density*.
Meanwhile, prepare your jars.  Clean and heat lids, rings, and jars -- sizes and amount vary by amount of peach butter.
When the peach butter has reached the right consistency, pour into jars.  Wipe off the mouths of the jars and top with lids and rings.  Process in hot water canner for 15 minutes for half-pint jars.

If you have a little extra that doesn't fit in a jar, there's no harm in just sticking it in the fridge to eat in the summer!

*To test for jam and fruit butter readiness, drop a small, small spoonful onto a chilled plate.  If it spreads and/or separates, it's not ready yet.  If it holds its shape like a blob of jam, it's good to go.

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Fix it, Mend it, Make it Better

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I was really hoping this post would be a great how-to for fixing a sprung couch.  But when I opened up the bottom of the couch last week to fix the springs, they were all in order.  I realized that the problems with our couch, though caused in part by the pulling of the springs, are more about the frame (which was constructed with staples!), and fixing that is going to take a lot more work than I had time, tools, or strength for that day.

But I love fixing things.  If you fix something, and fix it yourself, you don't have to pay someone else to do it for you, don't have to buy a new one, and don't have to throw out the old one.  More skills, less waste, more satisfaction, less money.

Three things I've actually fixed in the last few months:


Kitchen faucet, spraying water sideways.
CLRed the aerator.  Otherwise, because the faucet is so old (and small), I probably would have had to purchase and replace the whole faucet setup.

Toilet, running.
Replaced the rubber gasket.  This toilet is no longer wasting water!

Vacuum, not vacuuming.
This I do pretty regularly -- clean out EVERYTHING.  Take apart, rinse, clean, and dry.  This 9-year-old cheap vacuum is still pulling up the dog hair from the carpet.

Have something that's not working right? or something that's broken?  Try fixing it before you throw it out and get a new one.  Don't know where to start?  Search it up online -- there are lots of great fix-it sites out there and a lot of great fix-it videos, too.  Learn something new and have fun!

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Today in 5 Pictures: June 19

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Clementine is feeling broody.

Working on removing more burning bushes -- hopefully making way for more berry plants and fewer allergies.

Mabel loves scratching through the planters.

Peas!  (They were advertised as bush, but are behaving more like vine.)

Colourful lettuce assortment.

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Chickens & Salad (not chicken salad)

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Though my true gardening skill can be witnessed in the overgrowth of the rare delicacy known as crabgrass, this is what accompanied our grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner tonight.  Everything but the pecans were picked from the garden just minutes before dinner went on the table -- 5 kinds of lettuce, kale, spinach, basil, arugula, strawberries.  Delicious!

The girls love when I'm picking strawberries -- they eagerly await the ones the chipmunks started to eat and never finished -- you can see the corner of the strawberry patch on the left.  What you can't see in this picture is the rhubarb they demolished.  I'm hoping it comes back strong next year (especially considering that it has never been strong, which is kind of a problem, because it's rhubarb and it's supposed to be overgrown!).  
This is Clementine (buff orpington) and Mabel (silver-laced wyandotte) scrounging around the gardens for nibbles.

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Blueberries Are a Go

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In my previous blueberries article, you saw the prep work it took to create a space for the blueberry bushes we were receiving.  And they have been received (patriot, blueray, and jersey varieties), or rather, picked up.

After the space was cleared of the bounteous bushes, the soil had to be prepared.  I dug holes and a trench and filled them with stinky, fresh compost, burying that with dirt, and finishing the fill with more mature, bagged compost from the garden center and more dirt.  I planted four blueberry bushes where the land had been cleared (the patriot and blueray), and tucked them into their new beds with bark mulch.  The other two (jersey) I planted in the back of the yard, along with a miniature blueberry that had be floundering by itself in the front yard.







One week later, they are all leafing out, apparantly enjoying their new homes.  The two (three) in the back of the yard may not receive enough sun, but they should carry on perfectly well until I find a better place to put them (if a better place is indeed needed) -- I just had to get them in the ground somewhere, since there wasn't room in where the others were.



Now that the blueberries are in, I have been spending my time chopping up the branches of the bushes I removed; no small feat, that!  Amazingly, a bush that was 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide chops into a single wheelbarrowful of short twigs.  Cutting up the branches makes it easier to dispose of them in our heap of debris or in the composters.  (Unfortunately, at this time we don't have a chipper....)

Strawberries are coming along, as are the elderberries.  More on those later.

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