Its that time again, peaches galore! Yummy

Summer brings with it the promise of hot days, cool nights, abundant veggies and lots of fruit on my trees. We have been having some pest problems and found a new organic spray that seems to have solved my problem. This year, unlike last year, the apricot tree produced big, healthy fruit and my peach tree is doing the same. We also lost a major limb on my small tree and it forced me to prune it back severely and to my surprise it liked it by rewarding me with a crop of huge, juicy, white flesh peaches. I am now busy going through recipes, gathering supplies, jars, pectin etc.

I ended up picking flowers for the house as I was picking the peaches, its going to be a Suzy homemaker day I can tell.

Which brings me to my next point, cost of canning your own jelly and jam. I think that most people don't realize the cost involved or the time when someone hands you that $30.00 jar of jam. I also always tell myself I don't want the fruit to go to waste so I need to put it up but the cost these days isn't for the faint of heart. Then after you have mortgaged your house to get the supplies you still are faced with the job of picking, cleaning, preparing, cooking, sterilizing, processing all the recipes and goodies. Phew!

 But then as you look across your counter and see those jars filled with beautiful, jewel colored manna you instantly fall in love and all the money and time seems well worth it! It kind of reminds me of childbirth, all that time, the pain and then the reward!

Now I am working on labels, they will all have one along with some decorating and I have my Christmas gifts for this year. I couldn't sleep and was up at 3am painting labels, which if you notice I have to redo the lettering on since I misspelled a word on each tag, duh! Note to self:Brain can paint but can't spell in the middle of the night.

 I think I will probably spend a few more days canning, I found some new recipes I want to try. So far I did peach jam, jalapeno-peach, cantaloupe-peach almond preserves, peach salsa, peach bellini jam and corn relish! Yeah for me! I saw, I gathered, I conquered!