Our sweet little white peach tree in the backyard produced a bumper crop of fruit this year! Dan and I picked the peaches in two shifts. We left the fruit on the tree as long as we could until we began to fear for the fruit's lives. We have a family of squirrels that live in the tall maple right next to the little peach that tend to generously help themselves. The peaches spent their last couple ripening days in a large paper bag in the safety of the kitchen. My mom and Liz came over to help me begin canning one evening. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of our canning night. We were busy little bees in the kitchen and covered in sticky peach juice up to our elbows. We canned two batches of peach jam that night. Mom and Liz also canned a batch of blackberry jam while I was feeding Silas. The next couple of days were spent blanching, peeling, pitting, chopping AND blanching AND peeling, pitting, chopping, etc... After it was all said and done I think I ended up with about 32 jars of peach jam and spiced butter. The kitchen smelled wonderful!
Jam!
And spiced peach butter!
All of the pretty jars in a row on my mustard counter tops with my ketchup colored towels. Still a lovely sight to behold in spite of the condiment color scheme.Here is my recipe for spiced peach butter. Recipe adapted from pickyourown.org and fromourkitchen.blogspot.com.
Yields approximately 8 cups
Ingredients
8 pounds fresh, ripe peaches
2 1/2 cups of sugar
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 teaspoons of nutmeg
2 teaspoons of allspice
Peel and pit the peaches (it's super easy if you blanch them). Chop peaches. Place chopped peaches, sugar and spices in a crockpot and mix to combine. Turn the crockpot on low and cook overnight or 8-12 hours depending on your crockpot. Alternatively, you can cook the peaches on high for approximately 6 hours but you will want to stir the mixture every 15 minutes or so to ensure that it doesn't burn. Leave the lid slightly askew to allow steam to escape and the peaches to reduce. Puree the peaches with an immersion blender, regular blender or food processor until the desired consistency is reached. Can the butter while it is still piping hot!
Instructions for canning
Wash and sterilize your jars, lids and rings. Keep the jars in a pan of hot water, your dishwasher (on a drying cycle) or on a cookie sheet in your oven preheated to 200*. Keep the lids hot in a pan of simmering water (never boiling as this could damage the seal). The rings will be fine at room temperature. Working with one or two jars at a time, ladle the hot peach butter into the jars leaving 1/4" of head space. Wipe the rims clean, place lid on jar and tightly screw on ring. Once all jars are filled, place in canner or large pot filled with enough boiling water to cover the jars by 2". Boil for 10 minutes. Carefully lift the jars out and place in a spot where they won't be disturbed for 24 hours. Before too long you will begin to hear the jars seal! If for some reason a jar does not seal you will need to store it in the refrigerator. All sealed jars can be stored at room temperature. Cool basements are even better!
The great thing about fruit butter is that you can tweak the ingredients to fit your taste. Let me know if you try this recipe and what (if any) tweaks you make!
Card mugs courtesy of Aunt Debbie.
Good morning, birthday boy!
My sweet baby boy.
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