oh, my aching back!

i finished my first batch of peaches. i must say, they look glorious sparkling in the sunlight streaming through the kitchen window. with some trial and error in peeling the different varities, i decided that the 'contendor' variety is best for canning right now- in that they almost peel themselves. the others took more effort, so i decided to save those toughies for jam, where you won't notice little dings and scratches on the peach flesh.

i made a "canning playlist" for itunes (a little bit of Pink Martini, Brandi Carlile, Joanna Newsom...) and got to work. my mom's words rung in my head "You have to have everything all prepared and laid out." so i hope i made her proud with the kitchen spick and span, a surface for every step in the process (peeling & cutting the fruit, ladeling into jars, pouring syrup into jars, every burner used on stove, and lastly, the cooling area, free of drafts to ensure efficient sealing) and before i knew it, i was in the throes of canning.

water dripping on the floor as i quickly "poach" the skins to peel, lid water boiling, dishwasher whirring to sterlize and steam my jars-in-waiting... it was a tornado of peaches and boiling water...

so i sent my sister out to take care of reed and pick blackberries for my next endeavor. hours went by and i wondered how they were faring. black hands and reed's black face greeted me with a huge vat of plump goodness from our property. how thankful i am that they did that job for me!

so, as i sit here and recount the past few hours, i hear satisfying little *ding* after *ding* telling me that the jars are obediently sealing in the kitchen. ahhh... my (pregnant) body is so tired and just wants to lay down and watch martha stewart on tv, but no, i need to press on. there are more jars, more peaches and much more berries. in my attempt to utilize all these peaches (3 boxes) i have decided to make just as much if not more jam as i do in canning the whole fruit. although canned peaches are a treat (esp. for kids' dessert, like we had growing up) one jar goes so fast and all that hard work goes down the gullet so quickly. our house eats lots of jam, and very seldomly does our homemade summer jam last past fall. so i think i will make big batches of peach & blackberry and this year will selfishly give less away as gifts, but more away to my family at home. :)
i scoured the internet, bon apetit mags, canning books, and even the little recipes in the Sure Jell box to see the best and most interesting peach jam i could make. now, i say "i could make" as some very creative and interesting ones called for vanilla pods, mangoes, oranges, etc., but those i do not have on hand. so after getting ready to succumb to plain ol' sugar and peach preserves, i found a recipe on RecipeZaar.com for Vanilla Peach Jam. i read the reviews and they are rave... even though i meant to use only things i had on hand, i decided that since i was missing lemon juice already, a trip to the liquor store for 1tbsp of burbon might be worth it. it might bring back memories of my mom's rum peaches from when we were little. that sounds weird, doesn't it? eating rum peaches as a kid. we also devoured rum balls during christmas, and we are all the better for it??? hmm. its scary to think how much we pass on to our kids as tradition because "our parents did it with us". "and look how we turned out". yes, look.

speaking of generational dysfunction, i am inserting a picture from last summer's canning escapades with mom & my sis. my husband walked in to the house when we were in the midst of the blackberry "fight". as he didn't grow up with a dysfunctional family, his jaw was very much on the floor and he hustled right through the kitchen to a more sane part of the house. :)
i am putting that picture up until i upload today's sparkling beauties of yellow jars.

au revior, wish me luck in the future batches!

getting ready to can peaches

the boxes are in the garage, hopefully cool enough to keep. to wait until my procrastination streak ends. you see, the man at the fruit stand told me that I needed to can these within days... i have a few boxes. i have little incentive to start.

we just got back from a quick trip to visit my mom at the cabin in eastern washington. there were a few dissapointments along the way- including missing her as she was on her way to the other side of the state, called to a forest fire in Goldendale. we said a brief goodbye as she left and we entered Okanogan County at 2:30am. my idyllic hopes of walks in the forest, recipe swapping, peach canning, and time with her blazed away as some forest fire in south central wash. blazed on. (if you haven't guessed it yet, she is a forest fire fighter with her fiance who specializes in the seasonal work as they use their engine, EngineJoe, to enter at the initial attack and clean up stages of the damaging fires.) however, we had one day in the sun before we made the long trek back home and made the much anticipated stop in Orondo, Wa. to buy peaches peaches peaches. i was in search of the perfect stand, and settled upon Lone Pine Fruit, one of my favorite stops in the past. after smelling endless amounts of handmade soaps, expensive candles, ogled at the homemade pies and sampled the season's first peaches, we finally settled on these three varities for canning: Contender (gigantic globes of peachiness), Early Elberta (pale, beautiful, peachy little ones) and Angles (a nice, firm,  middle of the road peach).