Peaches, peaches, peaches...

So, way back when... a month ago... seems like a lot longer then that!, we picked apricots and plums. I made jam with the plums. The apricots I pureed and froze while waiting for peaches to come in season. I really have had a craving to make some peach/apricot jam like Grandma Giesbrecht used to make. (I hope I can do it justice!) Peaches are finally in season... and finally we had the time to go out to Purdum's (fruit/vege stand in Fruitland) and bought a 30lb box of peaches for $15. They smelled delicious! And taste just as wonderful! I also wanted to make some peach ice cream.

Oh! What we've been through to make this jam and ice cream! Sunday afternoon we went to Walmart and I knew I needed cream and one recipe I looked at called for ½ n ½, as well. So we got that & freezer containers. Looked all over for the pectin for the jam. Couldn't find the same kind I had at home already and the recipes seemed to be different so I didn't want to get new stuff since I had the apricots measured out all ready. Decided to head home, I'd start pureeing peaches for the ice cream and Les would just run to Paul's to get the pectin. He did that and in the process of making the ice cream and getting things ready for jam, I realized I didn't have lemons for the jam. UGH!! When I made the plum jam, it didn't take lemons so I just didn't realize I needed them. So, ok, no problem. We'll just make the ice cream and worry about the rest tomorrow.

 

Monday rolls around and I leave work at 3:45 & head into town to run an errand in Boise & at the DMV and go to the store for lemons. Got home after 6 and started – I don't remember! I think it was the ice cream. Got it set up in the sink and started adding ice and salt and the little bugger wouldn't turn on. Couldn't for the world figure out why. Guessed that the motor had burned out. Les had gotten home from work and couldn't figure it out either. I said I really think pizza that somebody else makes/bakes would be a really good idea since the kitchen had peaches, pits & peels every where. So while he called in an order, I cleaned up the canister and stuck it back in the fridge.

When I had made the ice cream, I used a recipe from online. It made just a little bit more than would fit in our ice cream freezer. So I had a little zip-lock bag with about 1 ½ cups of mix in it. I put the ice and rock salt from the attempt at making ice cream into a bigger zip-lock along with the small zip-lock of mix. While Les was getting pizza, I sat there mixing the little bit of ice cream by hand to harden it. Mmmm! Was that ever some good ice cream. Dessert before pizza – oh yes!!

 

 Then was the next task – making the jam. Got two batches of it completed – only 5 more to go! Yes, I may have prepared/pureed a bit more apricots then I needed too. O'well, so be it. So now I'm doing peaches like crazy – not sure what time it is by now as we had to stop to eat pizza and play cribbage (I won but only by 4 points!). Les is helping when needed and looking online for a new ice cream freezer. Suddenly he notices that his computer is not charging even though it's plugged in. He starts messing around with it, taking the battery out, etc. trying to figure out whats going on with that. All of a sudden he realized that we had blown a breaker when the ice cream freezer kicked on for that brief second. So here we were almost 10pm and what do you know!? The ice cream freezer works just fine... So we quick finish up the jam and get the canister, ice and rock salt out again and make the ice cream!

 Well, we thought it worked just fine. Something still wasn't engaging correctly unless we put weight on it. So Les laid across the top of it practically to get it to work. He'd move enough so I could add ice and rock salt and then push down on it again. It's a good thing the ice cream turned out yummy! It would have been awful to go through all that for yucky ice cream!! The best part was eating the little bit I had made earlier while the big batch was working away in the freezer.

I think we got the kitchen cleaned up and were in bed by 11. Not something I want to do on a work night again! Thankfully Tiffani went to bed at a decent hour and slept through the ice cream making racket. 

8 pints of peach/apricot jam on 9/26.

Over half a box of peaches left still... 9/26.

And now Tuesday rolls around... Really gotta get all that jam made... Still had lots of peaches left. Didn't realize how much was in a box! It didn't look like that big of a box, really... My inexperience at jam making is painfully clear with the over abundance of fruit and not enough of other ingredients... Had enough lemons and sugar to make 2 more batches. Need more lemons and sugar to make the last 3. I guess that is tomorrow's agenda – after work – again. Good news is I had the jam done and was cleaning up the kitchen by the time Les got home.

8 pints of peach/apricot jam... 9/27

Wednesday – Les stopped on his way home from work to pick up the extra lemons and sugar I needed. I didn't want to take the time after work/school because it was the only day Tiffani was going to be home briefly before heading out again. So Les got home and I had started peeling peaches and Les squeezed the lemons and we got the other 3 batches of jam done. But even though we carefully figured the total jam we'd be making & knew how many storage containers to buy... I was short! Good Grief!! So my wonderful husband went to Paul's again to get some more containers at 8pm. Finally the jam is done.

8 pints peach/apricot jam & 3+ pints all apricot jam (this was from those tiny apricots that kind of looked like large cherries).... 9/28

The peaches were not gone.... I attempted some peach fruit leather with another 8 of them... That was a major fail. Not even any pictures of it. It looked like it was suppose too, I thought, but it tasted burnt. After eating some (peaches – not fruit leather), that left about 15 peaches. I brought those to school to share with Shauntel & Jayne. Tiffani told me I wasn't allowed to get any more peaches. I asked her why (because she didn't do a thing with any of them!). She said she couldn't stand the smell of them. A full box in the house was just too much. If I didn't know any better I'd have to ask where she came from! Fresh peaches are the best smell/scent!

The fruits of our labor... 

Yes, that is my garage fridge/freezer freezer filled with jam, jam, jam, more jam, a loaf of bread (for the jam, of course!) jam, a ham, plum jam, & a bag of ice. I am well prepared to fix any one's sweet tooth!