If anyone had suggested to me this time last week that I would be making peach jam this week….they’d have been on the receiving end of some kind of sarcastic comment. While we always get a few good peaches, I sometimes think its madness to continue here with any kind of stone fruit and was told some years ago that I’d never produce good peaches using organic methods. And I was feeling this to be the case….until Monday!
We have a house guest at the moment, and when he enquired as to whether there might be something he could do for me on Sunday afternoon, I gave the poor young man the onerous task of removing the net from the espaliered peach tree, picking off all ant-ridden fruit & bagging it for the bin; which he dutifully did. He then came to advise me that he’d picked off all the rest of the fruit too and asked what he should do with it? Imagining another handful of mottly peaches, (I was busy shovelling horse poo onto citrus trees & rhubarb), I gave him a large colander and on returning to the kitchen found it full to overflowing with fruit….but I was still feeling sceptical – would they all be brown inside as has happened too often before?
Too late to think on Sunday, I cut into one after lunch on Monday and to my huge delight and excitement, it was perfect! The skins may not be as peachy as the ones you see in the shops, but the flesh is to die for……
And so I searched my books, found a recipe and did what you should never do…..begin making jam any time after 3pm! You can bet it will be ready to bottle just as its time for dinner….
Oh well, such is life! I can vouch for the fact that warm, the jam is totally scrumptious, but the true taste test will be on Sunday morning’s croissant….and yes, the house-guest will get to try it then too (though we’re all guzzling fresh peaches this week as fast as we can!)