Millions of peaches!

So I got a wild hair and decided to can some peaches. Not jam them...but can them in slices. We eat a lot of those (store bought...full of HFCS) here.  The peaches here are abundant and sweet.  Can't go wrong, right?  I haven't tasted them yet....the jury is still out on the results. I can say that it smelled scrumptious in here for a day. YUM!

I have to add that I started this project at 6 pm on a day when my husband worked hard on the house and chicken coop.  He was tired and wanted nothing more than to sit with a coldie and watch a movie. However, I had peaches that had ripened way quicker than I thought and knew if I waited another day, we would have problems.  He jumped in without too many complaints and helped me out until it was done. It's definitely a two person job...for me... Thanks Todd for helping!!!

All in all, we had fun visiting and talking about our Grandmother's canning days. He used to help his grandma can and knew a lot more than I did about this.  He said his grandma made the best bread and butter pickle. I remember MY Grandma canning jars and jars of pickles trying to find the PERFECT recipe for me since I loved pickles so much. I remember visiting her and her proudly giving me a pickle out of her beautiful jars. I loved that. It was a great trip down memory lane for both of us.

Here are some pictures of the process for your viewing pleasure.

Sterilized jars. Ready to go!

Peaches in their bath

Boiling first

Ice water dunk after boiling helps to peal the peaches speedy quick (too much Junie B Jones here!)

The master slicer at work.

Oh yeah..and not to be missed is the almost gone fresh peach margarita

 Recipe can be found over at Gypsy Forest. I highly recommend you run over and check it out..and make it. YUM

We took all of the peach pits and skins and 3 cups of sugar and boiled it all down with 1/4 cup of lavender.  Let it sit overnight, add 1 box of pectin per 3 cups of liquid (after straining) and you have a nice peach peel/pit/lavender jelly. Let me tell you how good this smells!!! I heard over and over how delicious it smelled in the house. YUM

Sliced up peaches ready to jar.

And this is what Todd is good for..cleaning up messes as he goes. You'll see later why him helping is an important step.

Don't forget to feed the kid. Yes, that's surgical gloves she has on her hands. She uses them so the chicken wings don't make her hands messy..lol Don't mind the canning equipment, the super comfy Birks, and the mealworm colony in the background..lol

Let the canning begin!

A little more fibrous than I had expected, but still pretty right?

Give them a bath on the bbq pit outside..b/c your stove isn't the right style of stove for a pot this big.

The next morning...it's time to make the jelly... I had to let the concoction soak overnight.  Leave it to Todd to come up with a metal screen to use in place of cheesecloth.

I didn't have any more of Todd's help for the jelly. See what happens when he stops helping?  I end up with 3 pots of the same substance cooking. I did get a raised eyebrow at this when he was passing through.

Which inevitably left me with this problem (which is still there while I blog). See, I NEED Todd to help me!

BUT...I was left with this. Isn't it wonderful?? I LOVE the color of the jelly. SO pretty. It's not looking like it'll set though...maybe it'll be peach lavender syrup. We shall see.