Just Peachy!

It has been a busy few days here of birthday month!  One of the things that I have been really busy doing is dealing with a couple boxes of peaches.  Actually it was more like 4 boxes of peaches, as my dear friend Jane and I canned up all 4 of them.

Nice apron, right??  Lol

Every July a truck arrives in good old Park Falls from Georgia, laden with peaches and this year, blueberries as well!  I have  been participating in this event for the last 2 years.  It yields some wonderful fresh tasting fruit that we really enjoy during the long, cold winters up here.  Totally worth the 4.5 hours of work that it involves.

The day began with me arriving at the Strand summer kitchen, a lovely place to hang out.  Jane and I had a great time catching up on the events of our lives during the past 4 weeks.  We had picked up the fruit and laid them out on a rack for nice even ripening.  

Jane beginning to scald and peel peaches, you can see racked peaches behind her.

We used her super fast dishwasher to clean and sterilize the jars- nice!  This is a super nice space to work in, so well organized and so easy to clean!  Very Jane!  Jane did the peeling and halving, I filled the jars, made the syrup (very lightly sweet), put on the lids and loaded them into the waterbath.  It sounds like I did a lot, but really the peach peeler did most of the work!  

Clean and sterilized jars ready to go

Cutie pie!  

Great space to work

Peaches almost ready for their boiling water bath!

A finished pot of peaches.

Some of the finished jars.  

I think we ended up with at least 45 jars of peaches.  I'll have to check for the final count.  We began the process about 9:30 and finished up a bit after 2.  It was a great day.

Then last night I made this:

Blueberry/Peach cobbler

Blueberry Peach Cobbler
From Cooking Light magazine

Preheat oven to 375

5 pounds of peaches, peeled, pitted, sliced
2 T. lemon juice
1 cup sugar/divided
3/8 tsp salt, divided
6.75 ounces flour (about 1.5 cups), plus 2 T.
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c. buttermilk
2 cups blueberries
2 Tablespoons turbinado sugar

Place peaches in bowl, toss with lemon juice, then 3/4 cup sugar,1/8 tsp salt, and 2 T flour.  Pour into 13 x 9 pan that was sprayed with cooking spray

Mix flour, baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt in bowl and mix.  Cream butter and 1/4 c. sugar in large bowl, beat until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, mix well after each addition.  Stir in vanilla.  Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to butter mixture. just until combined.  Stir in blueberries.

Pour over peaches, even out, and sprinkle on turbinado sugar.  Place dish on foil lined rimmed baking sheet (in case of boil over) and place in oven.  Bake about 1 hour until topping is browned.

12 servings, approximately 303 calories for 3/4 cup

It is divine!!


Until next time, be a joy GIVER!!  And it helps to hang out with other joy givers as well!!  Right Jane?  :)

By the way, if you want to see a blog with REALLY great recipes, go to The Sunday Baker!  Tanya is a wonderful cook, writer, blogger and friend.  Check it out here!