Our neighbors went to the lovely state of GA last week for their oldest granddaughter's high school graduation. They would be gone for a week and needed us to take care of their beef cattle and to feed the cats while they were away. We are happy to help them out so they can travel see their children and grandchildren.
They always bring back a thoughtful thank you gift and this time they brought a gallon of strawberries and a peck of peaches. They were so flavorful, fresh and brightly colored.
After eating some fresh; we decided that it was just going to be too much to eat before they would go bad so I made 9 pints of strawberry jam and froze several quarts of peaches. The peaches will be a wonderful addition to a smoothie.
Ryder eats toast with butter and jam every morning. I have even had some on toast...yeah the "bad gluten kind" too! I didn't get sick and it is so delicious! Madi made some parfaits with vanilla yogurt, granola and fresh peaches! They were delicious also. Ryder ate two, maybe three, that evening. There is just something about fresh fruit that is awesome!
The jam is a brighter red color than these photos show. It is bright red like the strawberries but for some reason my camera didn't feel like making them red!
I used the recipe in the Ball canning book. It is a very simple, easy recipe. I did choose to use the pectin recipe. After having these strawberries Jeremiah decided that he wanted to plant some more strawberry plants. Our plants died out several years back and we just never got around to planting more. I ran to the local greenhouse and bought 14 plants. Jeremiah was happy that they still had some and they were marked down to $.75 a plant! They are rather large plants with blossoms and two of them have strawberries starting!
That's a wrap from the Pine Tree Forest! I think I may need to eat something with jam this morning! I need something with my tea!
Have a blessed day, y'all!
Fresh peaches and strawberries and yummy deliciousness in the cupboard!
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