Millions of peaches

Yesterday I was dubbed a “dear cult leader” by my canning gal friends. I suppose it is quite possible that I have unwittingly formed a canning cult, if the internet describes a cult as:

an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal [canning??], or thing [canning jars??], especially as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.

My dear subjects and I came up with a plan involving A’s traveling adventures in the South, where canning supplies are cheaper and more plentiful than here in the Northeast. Then we pushed the plan down the hill until the snowball grew into A returning with 26 pounds of peaches (plus or minus a peach or two eaten on the drive home), cases of jars, boxes of lids, curry spices and some exotic salts. Yup. There’s a cult in here somewhere.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me…

These peaches weren’t free…

Twenty-six Pounds of Peaches

The peaches were picked Tuesday morning, traveled to New England on Wednesday, and we jumped straight into canning them on Thursday. They were too ripe to freeze (something we’d hoped to do with a good chunk of them), so we had no choice but to put them in cans. I know, sounds awful doesn’t it?

I also had two and a half pounds of the most gorgeous heirloom tomatoes that I wanted to try in the Tomato-Basil Jam from the Better Homes and Garden canning magazine.

Tomatoes and Lemons

We made:

1. Tomato-Basil Jam – using SB Canning’s added lemon juice modification here but with regular basil.
2. Peach-Basil Jam – also from the Better Homes and Gardens canning magazine.
3. Peach Butter – from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving.
4. Spiced Peach Butter – from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving.
5. Peach Chutney – from SB Canning’s recipe here that was to die for!

More pictures soon! I’ve got to finish the batch of peach peels and pits jam tonight, yum, yum! Thanks to Rebecca H for snapping some great shots!