Pick your own farms are my favorite because it really makes you realize where our food comes from and the labor that goes into retrieving it. Oftentimes, we do not associate with our food and nature, at least in our fast-paced, product-focused world many of us live in today. It really makes you think about the process of our consumables. We go to the grocery store or farmer’s market if we are lucky enough to have one in the vicinity of us and pick the best produce and packaged goods that catch our eye, but picking your own fruits and vegetables can be very humbling.
It was a hot summer’s day when we arrived at the Sauvie Island ‘Pick Your Own’ farm and it was peach season! I have fond memories of picking up fresh organic peaches from the roadside vendors when traveling in the peak of peach season. My family would get a brown paper bag full of soft juicy peaches and eat the sunkissed fuzzy fruit until there was nothing left but the pits. Needless to say, I was very excited to pick these fresh peaches and I planned to eat at least one while I was harvesting my fruits, sampling is the best part of course! After a couple hours we had collected over 3 lbs of peaches, stomaching a few as well, plenty of red and white raspberries as well as some fresh lavender. I have plans for this fresh fruit of course, but I am most intrigued as of late by canning and preserving my own homemade foods. I have an interest in making something along the lines of a peach jam or peach preserves.
When I get home I wash all my produce and go to work slicing the ripe fruit. I couldn’t help but to eat some fresh, but these ripe fruits won’t last long and I have plans to preserve them by making my first organic homemade jam! I have dabbled in making fruit preserves and “jams” in the past, but this time I added a bit of gelatin powder, pinch of salt and arguably too much cinnamon… A quick internet search and multiple Youtube videos later, I have what I need to complete my first canning project! A first attempt at a summer canning project wouldn’t be complete without some failures along the way though. I had decided to reuse some glass jars that did not have an appropriate lid for canning, but I figured I would give it a shot. If I fail I will learn from it, right? That’s my motto.
My first mistake was not properly measuring my cinnamon for this recipe, which is not something that I like to do, as I eyeball almost everything in my kitchen. My gelatin could have been added in smaller amounts and whisked immediately in order to melt thoroughly in my peach and cinnamon concoction, but I filtered out large chunks throughout and still achieved a good consistency of my jam, or preserves, if you will. When the time came to can I made a water bath for my jars in my trusty dutch oven and used a metal piece from my instant pot so my jars didn’t touch the bottom of the dutch oven, most professional canners will have some sort of trivet to protect your jars from the high heat at the bottom of the pot. This website offers some other creative ideas for those on a budget and may not have all the necessary tools for this type of DIY project! One online user even created their own trivet/improvised canning rack from foil! I used tongs and an oven mitt to remove my jars from their water bath when they were ready and left them on a towel on the counter to cool. Some jars (the reused ones) did not seal properly so that was the first jar of jam I ate from! Another jar I placed in my freezer after cooling in order to preserve for later.
After canning I still had some peaches leftover so I offered some to my roommate and began to make a peach cobbler! I would love to gift some canning successes to my family and friends and share them with my household! I would say the cobbler is what I most looked forward to making when I picked these peaches, it is a dish that is so nostalgic and holds a special place in my heart. It’s also not something I really make often, but tried to emulate the recipe I was familiar with growing up. Surprisingly a cobbler is not all that hard to make! Oats, brown sugar, salt and peaches (cooked or raw) can be used to make a decent peach cobbler. I used raw peaches and there was quite a bit of peach liquid I did not really account for. Again, failures teach you so many lessons. However the taste of the cobbler was superb, as well as the peach preserves! We ended up eating the cobbler over the next few days, primarily for a quick breakfast reheated in the toaster oven or for a late night desert, of course served with vanilla ice cream. I am looking forward to this peach season, visiting another pick your own farm and getting closer to my food supply chain. I will be canning more in the future and hope to grow and preserve a lot of my own organic foods! Overall, it was a delightful experience and canning has been something I wanted to get into, but was always intimidated by--now I know it’s not really that complicated. However, I would recommend following the rules of canning and using new lids and of course clean supplies in order to keep everything food safe so as to not encounter botulism or food waste! I hope to bring you recipes and more inspiration for your own food in the future, until then let's eat!
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