Sixteen pounds of peaches were peeled and chopped up, and then mixed with sugar, orange rind, orange juice, and maraschino cherries, and each four-pound batch is now resting overnight, and on Monday I will can this glorious jam!
Jack went outside this morning and picked the 16 pounds off the trees in our backyard. He brought them in and I washed them and then the two of us worked at blanching them and peeling them up.
We started just after lunch and worked until 4:45! It’s a lot of work, but I decided to make all four batches at once because the next few weeks will be really busy with other things.
This morning we took Arnie to the Recycling Center with us, while we threw out a lot of old useless stuff I have cleared from shelves and closets, and afterward, we drove him to see his human girlfriend, Rebecca at the State Liquor Store. He is always so happy to see her and she just adores our little dog-boy!
Tomorrow I will work to cook and then can the Heavenly Jam. I should get at least thirty-six half pints of this delicious jam!
Let me tell you a little bit about this Jam recipe. The recipe came from Jack’s mother, Pearl. She liked her’s a little bit softer than I like mine. I still recall the first time I had it though. It was just after Jack and I were married. She bought fresh, plain doughnuts and we dipped them into the jam. I am telling you, Heaven on Earth! I was hooked.
I asked her for the recipe and she frowned and told me that she only shared her recipes with family members! I was a new, young, bride, (and second wife) and I was crushed by her words. And unfortunately, the recipe came to me a few years later when she passed away and I inherited her recipe file.
Oh, how I wish that she and I could have been friends. Life is so short. She never did approve of our marriage, but after being together for over 30 years now, I guess Jack and I have shown all the naysayers that we actually made a good life choice.
In any case, when I was doing the prep work today I thought of Pearl and I wondered what she might think of the fact that I have carried on making one of her favorite recipes for her son? I would like to believe that she would be pleased, to know that even after all these years since her passing, we still recall her through the recipes she left.
Monday is canning day!
The Recipe for Heavenly Jam can be found HERE
So what do you do with 36 half pints of jam, whatever that amount is. 4.5 pints to the litre, so a lot of jam. No, that is 4.5 litres to the gallon. I dunno. I’ll email you my postal address for you to send us some jam.
Thanks for the information love this jam and on english muffins or a crusty bread it is hard to resist. My son in Michigan wanted to take home all mine and I said I would make more and send it. I’ve made 3 batches this year.