Day Ten ~ Effin Peaches

Not much time to post tonight - it's been a long day. Breakfast was a half of a Wisconsin Pride melon (homegrown!), with yogurt and honey. The melon is decent, not very sweet, but not bad. Lunch was leftover potatoes from Saturday's dinner, dinner was what you see above: grilled pork chops with basil and chili pepper, green beans cooked in foil on the grill, and dry beans from the East Side Farmer's Market. It's funny to eat beans and beans.....

The peach saga continues. I came home from work prepared to can jam, process the Oxheart tomatoes that I've been stockpiling, and roast some black cherry tomatoes that needed to be dealt with. As if that wasn't enough, I went to the basement to check on the peaches I had stashed down there and found a bunch more with little rot spots. I just can't let them go to waste, so I sorted them and brought the bad ones upstairs.

I made the jam with the peaches I had peeled and food-processed last night. The recipe I used was found online: just peaches, honey, lemon juice and cinnamon. I don't think it was the best recipe - I have my doubts that it will set without added pectin, but anything's possible. I water bath canned 15 pints total.

The cherry tomatoes were easy - just cut in half, put on a cookie sheet, dusted with salt, and roasted in a warm oven. I had intended to blanch and peel the Oxhearts, but given all of the peaches I had to deal with I decided to just chop them, put them in a big casserole in the oven, and roast them. A few tomato peels never killed anyone.

Finally, I peeled the rest of the peaches, took the pits out, and stashed the pulp in the fridge to freeze tomorrow.

These peaches are demanding! I really thought I was going to wait until Sunday to process all of them - but they had other ideas. I really can't complain though - we are so lucky to have them!

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