Peach Butter

Rory bought the baseball bat zucchini

Rory and I went be-bopping around the Tompkins county countryside on Friday.  We saw a hand printed sign for peaches with an arrow.  Works for us.  I love peaches.  Wegmans had them for $1.49 a pound.  These guys had half a bushel for $13.50, or a full bushel for $21.50.  Then Rory uses a phrase I have never heard before: "peach butter.'

***Cue angelic music and a beam of light shining down.***

In the food mill

I bought half a bushel.

Why have I never heard of this?  I looked online and found dozens of recipes.  The one I picked used a ratio: 5 large peaches to 1/2 cup if water and one cup of sugar.  East European Food Peach Butter

The recipe suggests pitting the peaches, boiling them for 20 min and then using a food mill instead of slip peeling the peaches.  I though it would be easier.  Meh.  I'll try slip peeling next time.

Up to the rim

I get it into the crock pot and it fills it up to the rim.  I put the top on tipped so that steam can escape and go off to knitting.  Three hours later, the butter is no where near butter.  It cooks all day, no where near butter.  We go to the ball game.  Come home and it is still no where near butter.  Maybe the crock pot is too open?  I go back and start reading recipes.  They talk about boiling in the crock pot.  This stuff is not boiling.  I decide to let it rip overnight on low.

Yippie.  Lots of steam.

In the morning it looked like hell.  But the taste was not bad.  Pretty darn good in fact.  I decide to press on.  I dumped it into one of the farmer's sauciers and boiled like mad.  It was like peach napalm.  The splatters were unreal.  I was using the lid like a shield.  At one point the farmer came in and looked at what was left in the crock pot.  "Ick" he said.  "Yeah, but taste it" , I replied.  He did and despite laughing, he agreed that it was good.  It is a dark mahogany color, but that's what color the online pics are too.

9 jars!

27 hours after starting I ladled it into lots of different sized jars and put them back into the bath. While we were out at the movies, every one sealed.

If I ever do this again, I will probably make the commitment to hang out in the kitchen with it stirring for an hour and a half . 

I'm not sure I'm confident enough in this batch to gift them.  It's a really good thing that I like peaches.