peach and nectarine adventures, part 1,000,000

peaches! and nectarines! 

I was fortunate enough to come into possession of a few boxes of peaches and nectarines (like the one you see above). The next few days will detail all of the things I've done with them, starting with the most recent.

Today (the last Saturday of my carefree summer), I used the last of my canning jars to make some peach-raspberry jam and peach-tomato salsa. The salsa recipe came from the perfect peach cookbook and the peach-raspberry came from Taste of Home. 

peach-raspberry jam and peach-tomato salsa. 

The jam is great, but very sweet. I'm hoping some of that sweetness mellows as it sets. In the future, I may try cutting back some of the sugar and adding a low-sugar pectin to combat the sweetness. My peaches were very sweet though.. 

The salsa is whoo spicy and sweet at the same time. There was leftovers that wouldn't fit into the jars and I ate a bit of it for dinner as a gazpacho-type soup. I bet it would even taste great as a marinade of sorts. I added extra garlic to the recipe, but left out the tomato sauce and paste because I didn't have any. I did add extra tomatoes to try to compensate, and the jam is a bit thinner than it seemed like the book recipe would make - but I like it that way. 

This summer is the first time I've canned and processed the cans. I've put stuff in jars before and left it in the freezer/refrigerator, but processing the cans is a first. I read a LOT of websites with different (and sometimes opposite) tips, but I think the best thing that worked for me was just following the directions on the box of pectin. After I figure out the science behind it all, I think I'll be able to experiment a bit. 

Tracy