Peaches!

The other day I decided to stop by our local Farmer's Market. I hadn't been in for a good while because while it's a great sized market, many of their products are not local. (sigh) Despite this, I stopped by to poke around. Much to my delight, they had a large box of peaches labeled "Seconds" they were selling for 60 cents a pound!!! Seconds are typically the imperfect or slightly bruised fruit or veggies that aren't as likely to sell. Not having a perfect-peach-prejudice, I quickly began picking through and before I knew it, I was toting home a 14 pound box of peaches!

Since I refused to buy peaches during our town's peach festival earlier this summer for ONE DOLLAR A PEACH(oh my!), I was a tad over excited and possibly had a slight case of my eyes being bigger than my stomach. I laid the baby down for a nap and promptly gave the peaches a nice cold bath in the sink. Then I laid them out on the counter...and kept laying them out on the counter...until they covered the majority of the surface of the kitchen counter top. All being perfectly ripe and delicious, I knew I had to act fast before any of them started to turn.

Many years ago, one of my Mom's friends, "Auntie Jan", was known for her spiced peach preserves. I remember the first time I tasted her preserves on a warm buttery biscuit...it was the very essence of fall itself. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to slip into your comfy jeans, turn on some moody piano solos and sit down to write in your journal as the weather turns cooler. It was just that good.

With so many peaches before me and realizing I'd once again forgotten to quiz my husband ("On a scale of 1 to 10...how much to you like peaches?"), the only proper destiny for those delectable fruits was to make some of Auntie Jan's peach preserves!

I ran to our local Gibson's, which I've been informed was the precursor to Wally World, picked up some Sure-Jell, a box of quilted jelly jars and headed home to get to work. Though unable to be very involved in the process, Olivia should be credited with helping as she happily played in her baby gym whilst I prepped the peaches. I do have to admit...the recipe called for 10 cups, which I determined to be about 13 peaches, but by the time I was done slicing everything I had nibbled enough to require 14. ;) How could I not when they were so ripe, and juicy, and beautiful?!

Working in between baby feeding and her naps, making my own batch of preserves took a good portion of the day to complete, but by the time my hubby got home, I had several pints of spiced peach preserves to show him. I also got my answer...he does like peaches. ;) *phew*