This weekend Mark went with me to the Farmer's Market in Santa Cruz. Well, really, it's a flea market with a selection of farm stands included, and the primary reason we go is to hit the farm stands. I have impulse issues - when I see all the pretty colors and the yumminess that is summer fruits and veggies, I forget how much the two of us actually eat and end up buying enough for a compost pile as well. So Mark's job was to keep me in check - don't overbuy, just enough for the coming week. I know I have an issue (potential!), and this system works for us - most of the time. Until a certain someone, overcome with the sweet perfume of ripe peaches in a warm tent on a summer weekend, decides that yes, we can deal with over 50 #'s of fruit for a steal of a deal... And let me point out, that certain someone wasn't me.
So, 50#'s of peaches (not cling-free!), 25#'s of sugar, 8 pkgs of pectin, a little lemon juice, 9 hours, 4 aching feet, small knife nicks and sweat later, and we have 80(!) jars of peach jam, peach pie jam, and probably some peach syrup. 80 jars of jam = 5 gallons of jammy goodness. I think you know what's coming in your Christmas package.
And silly me, I still haven't learned my lesson. I'm going to Sur La Table some time this week and see if they have one of these or these in stock. If they do, we'll be repeating the process again next weekend. Sigh.
Besides the peaches, I also did two jars of refrigerator B&B pickles, a half-gallon of sugar-free strawberry ice cream, and installed new shelving units in the laundry room. The house is still a mess but smells of peaches, so it's all good.
80 Jars of Peachy Keen Sunshine
1 comment:
Looks gorgeous, lady. I only buy four peaches as a time, because if they're ripe enough to eat, they're too ripe to keep!
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