Capturing the End of Summer

One of my favorite things about summer is the fresh fruit that it offers.  We really enjoy going to different farm markets, especially ones where we can pick our own berries or apples.  We were in a local farm market the other day and the peaches smelled so good I decided to buy some and make peach butter for canning.  The wonderful thing about canning fresh fruit is that you can enjoy that summer goodness all winter long.

When we brought the peaches home I dug out my recipe for peach butter and decided to give it a try.  Of course my little firefighters were right there helping me.  The first thing that we had to do was blanche the peaches.  I was clueless as to how to do this so I looked it up on the internet.  The instructions seemed simple enough.  We needed to put the peaches in boiling water for 5 minutes then move them into ice water and remove the skins and peels.  So we began our journey to make our peach butter.

 These are the fresh peaches that we bought at the farm market.  My little firefighters like to go to this farm market because they sell candy sticks for 10 cents.  We like to sit on the bench in the sitting area at the farm market and eat our snacks before we go home.  We also bought some frozen homemade apple cider but we drank it up as soon as it thawed.  I really had a taste for one of their homemade donuts but they did not have any left.  In the Fall they make a wonderful apple cider donut that I just cannot resist!  Anyhow, back to the peaches...

These are our peaches after we boiled them.  I moved them over into ice water and the skins slipped off very easily.  I was able to remove the skin with my fingers.  I then sliced the peaches, removed the pits and G put the sliced peaches into the crockpot.

When I was done slicing the peaches we had quite a few in the crockpot and the kitchen smelled so good!  I tend to cook my peach butter (and apple butter and applesauce too) in the crockpot.  It cooks it slowly and I do not have to be standing there stirring it all of the time.  This is the part that G does not like because he says that it takes too long.  He wants it to turn into butter right away so he asks me pretty often "is the peach butter done yet mommy?"

Once the peaches had been in the crockpot for a couple of hours I used a potato masher and mashed the peaches a bit.  I did that again about another hour later and by then the peaches had turned to a pulp.  I measured out my pulp and sugar and G mixed them up for me and it all went back into the crockpot for several hours.

 This is what the peaches and sugar looked like after the peaches had turned to pulp and we added the sugar.  After I felt that the peach butter was thick enough I prepared my canning jars and began to fill them.

 This was what the peach butter looked like when it was done cooking in the crockpot and I began the canning process.

Once the jars were filled I placed them in a hot water bath canner.  While the peach butter was being processed I managed to get my kitchen cleaned back up.  By this point my little firefighters were in bed.  I like to do the canning when they are in bed because otherwise they would want to help and I do not want them near all of that hot, boiling water.  It is simpler to do the canning while they are asleep.

Finally, here is our peach butter.  I kept some peach butter in another jar that I did not process because I know that my little firefighters will be asking for it first thing in the morning.  Now we can have a taste of summer all winter long!