An apple is an excellent thing, until you have tried a peach.

~George du Maurier


I have finished canning my peaches. Got 9 quarts for pie. Well, ok, it is actually a simple syrup with peaches in it.




1 gallon of water, 4 oz of pectin, and 2 cups of sugar. Blanch peaches, and pull off the skin. Pit and throw into the pot with the above mixture. Heat through and can.

The liquid you have left is a wonderful peach flavored simple syrup that can be used for tea sweetening or pops.






I processed 2 quarts of the simple syrup.

I have peach butter simmering on the stove now.

Trying to get you answers

Meadowlark, I thought I would have more peach recipes up then this, but I have Peach Cobbler, Peach Butter, Peach pie, and that Peach Salsa. Good Luck!

Jenn, I am putting together those eggplant recipes for you.

Tracy, a few salsa recipes are on the way.

Sorry guys, with canning season in full swing, and the ezine I work for back online, I have been rather busy.

A Shocking Purple

I finished the peaches this weekend. Made 3 pies.

Saturday I went to my mother's house. It was my youngest brother's birthday and I went earlier to get some more of those grapes done. Mom and I got into position, and started processing. I placed the pureed grapes in a pot on the stove, then leaned over touching the stove, to turn on the burner. Some of you may remember that I have accused my mother of trying to kill me in the pas. Well Saturday she made yet another attempt. As I touched the stove I got a 100 volts through my hand, into my arm, stopping at my spine. How do I know it was 100 volts? Because after I was done doing the Phelan ritual dance of I've been shocked! My step father broke out his voltage meter. I think I am done with electricity at this point. How many time now? 3?

Mom called a friend in, he is an electrician. He found some future problems and fixed those, but was unable to discover what exactly was wrong with the coil. They left that one burner disconnected. Sure, that made me feel lots better about touching it.

Why, Hello My Little Peach

I took a break from grapes yesterday and tackled some of those peaches that have been patiently waiting for me.

Peach pie filling

3 lbs peaches (peeled, cored and sliced)

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp crystallized ginger

Mix together and stuff into 1 quart and 1 pint jars. you an freeze or process in a hot water bath for 20 minutes.

you will need tapioca for a thickening agent when you go to use the filling. 3-4 tablespoons. (if you want your pie to have a lattice top, mix tapioca with only 2/3 of the filling, place the 1/3 without on top of the 2/3 with. This will prevent the tapioca from getting hard)

If you want to use this filling for something other then pie. Make up some buttermilk biscuits for breakfast. Heat peaches in a sauce pan, adding 1 cup heavy whipping cream to every pint of mix. Pour over hot biscuits, and watch as everyone devours it and begs you for your share.

Tomorrow is my turn to post at Woman not dabbling, I have been going over and over what recipe I should post. Here's where you can help. We all seem to be knee deep in some sort of produce, what one do you need a recipe for. I will use the most commented produce as my subject, and post a not so normal recipe for it tomorrow.

Mint Ice Cream and Peach Butter

Our peach tree finally put out. She has been teasing us these past two years. It's been hard to stay faithful, and not touch the forbidden fruit of another fruit tree, but finally! My patience has paid off by a whopping 13 peaches! Almost 2 full pounds of fruit people.

We could have behaved like normal people and ate those 13 peaches, but I have a 4 year old. Those of you that don't have 4 years olds don't get it, those that do, I know I don't have to say anything more for you to figure out what has happened. He stuck a pencil into the peaches, all of them. And I didn't see it until the next day. So it is or was a mad dash to cut out the bad parts and save the rest. Luckily there was more good then bad, and I made peach butter.

You will need

Peaches, pitted and bad spot removed, leave on the skin

honey

sugar

patience and time

Now, puree you peaches, and the squeeze through a cheese cloth so you don't get any unwanted chunks, into a small or large (depending on how many peaches you are using) saucepan over a super low flame. (your dial should say super low) Add honey to almost the sweetness you desire. then a tad bit of sugar to reach the sweetness level of your choice. (too much sugar will cause the butter to be too sweet, hurting your teeth when you bite into your bread) now go make something else and check on your butter one and awhile, stirring to keep it from burning. Once it has reduced in volume, which could take all day, and is of a thick spreadable consistency, pour into your hot sterile 1/2 pint jars. Process in a hot water bath with the water covering the jars by 2 inches, for 10 minutes.

While I was doing that, I preserved some of my milk by making 4 quarts of Mint Chocolate chip Ice cream.

Let us start with those of you growing your own. Peppermint plants that is.

Peppermint Extract

1/2 cup fresh chopped peppermint leaves

1/2 cup vodka Directions

Combine the ingredients in a 1/2-pint Mason jar and set aside to steep for 10 days. Good vodka and good peppermint leaves are a must to get a good strong flavor. Strain into a large wide mouth jar, cover with cheese cloth, and allow the alcohol to evaporate. Extract will be good for a year, and don't open near any open flames!

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

2 1/2 cups milk

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups half and half

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

6 cups whipping cream

2 tsp peppermint extract

green food coloring

12 oz grated semi sweet chocolate ( or more to taste)

Scald milk just until bubbles form on the edges. Remove from heat and add sugar, salt, blend until dissolved. Stir in remaining ingredients, except chocolate chips, and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Follow your ice cream maker directions. Add chips after removing the dasher. Freeze for 5 hours.

Any questions?

Get your gun!

Before I go on with today's post, Caroline in NH left me a link yesterday. Some interesting news for all you No NAISers out there. If you haven't read about it yet Farm to consumer legal defense fund has sent a letter of intent to sue to the USDA over NAIS. You can read the intent here on Farm to Consumers Legal Defenses website. You know I will be watching this one closely.

I had a massive head cold yesterday, so it was good thing that for once no one had any questions. If you had, my answers might have sounded a little drunken. But I digress. My husband came home after work yesterday and we were talking a bit in the living room, suddenly my husband jumps up and runs into the bedroom. I look out the window and there in our field was that fox that had been killing our good neighbors chickens. I, in the drunken head cold state I was in, was a little slow to the point. "Get your gun! it's a fox." Of course by the time I said that, my husband was flying out of the room with our antique bolt action riffle.

The fox with what looked like a bird, in it's mouth was to far off to be shot at safely. So we watched where it went. Hoping to find it's home close by. Within a few moments one of the neighbor kids called my oldest son to tell him he just saw a fox. My oldest said yep, we saw it. My dad was going to shoot it. Now this statement might not seem like a problem, but it is. This kid's mom has no livestock. They live in the country just to live in the country. They want all the animals to be free to roam and live. There will be backlash on us for this wanting to shoot a fox. But here is the problem. Turns out that the the fox lives closer to the river then to us. It is stealing rather then hunting and it does so in the middle of the day. This fox has been found in chicken pens. The good neighbor did not have his gun on him, so screamed at it to scare it off. It had killed most of his chicks.

If this fox was hunting rather then stealing, we would leave it well enough alone. Not only are there small children playing out here, but goats are getting ready to kid. We can't afford to lose anything to a lazy/sick fox. If they are hungry enough, they will take down a kid or a calf. Before owning livestock, I too would have said live and let live, but between the fox, human thieves and dogs, I am tired of losing my birds. I will be doing all my chores today with that rifle strapped to my back.

In happier news, my veggies are doing well and I have peaches this year!

One Local Summer, no camera style

I put new batteries in my camera, and it still doesn't work. Guess it has been dropped one to many times. {I almost went into a rant about needing to buy American, but that's another post} I thought about making a dinner that I have made in the past and have a photo of for work, but that didn't happen, except for dessert.

We ended up having Game Hens with mushrooms, and a salad.

For dessert, we had a Peach Cobbler. The peaches are what I canned last year when we went to a local U-pick-it. Unfortunately they are no longer a u-pick-it because people were destroying the trees, now they are just a small farm stand on their property.

Really love your peaches, want to shake your tree

Ellie over on The Cedar Chest is winking at me.

I grew up in a small town, this was only a few years before it officially became a suburb. {Once upon a time, the city was far far away} This small town was known as the Peach Capital of the World. The orchards are now gone and tract housing in their place. The town, sorry, burb, has now become ugly and cold. I no longer drive through, because it is a painful sight to all my childhood memories.

I bring all this up, because my Peach tree has flowered. This is its third year, and when they typically begin to fruit. When selecting your young tree, it should be relatively straight and have buds. When ready to plant, cut the tree back to 18 inches above ground level. Watering should be done once a week, and you need to keep weeds cleared, the peach trees root systems are not very deep and can suffer from weed competition and drought. Sucker growth needs to be trimmed with a knife, if not done, the sucker will grow faster than the trunk and soon your peach tree will be wild.

Your third year you will want to fertilize well before the fall rains. Prune it back before February, in many cases you will have to cut it back by 50%. Do not allow all the fruit to stay on the limbs, you can get 50 peaches on one small branch, these need to be thinned out to 10 -12 inches apart, possibly only leaving you 3 fruits or so per branch. This will give you a better quality and tasting peaches. Thinning is also an important part to keeping the tree alive. Too many fruits can damage and possible kill your tree. The first thinning should take place when the peaches are about the size of a pea, then again when they are marble sized. You will want to go over the tree at least three times.

If the winter is too mild, your tree will not be able to go through its natural dormant period. This will cause flowers to bloom without leaves, a process called delayed foiliation, and it can be dangerous for your tree. Without leaves, the tree will be unable to care for its fruit, when this happens you will need to remove most of the fruit and the leaves should arrive in late spring. Your tree will have weakened and will hopefully rebound the next year. Try keeping the ground wet around the base of your tree to keep it in its dormant state longer. This is also a good way to prevent early blooming and frost damage.

Keep your tree trimmed so that it will grow wide and not tall. Also keep the area well fertilized, but without chicken manure. Too much nitrogen content. Cover crops can also aid in the health of your tree. Rye and vetch seem to be the best.

Keep could care of your peach tree and the tree will keep you supplied in its wonderful fruits for years to come.