After The Battle

Even though I can't declare battle squirrel 2010 an outright victory we had a large enough pile of small white peaches to share some with friends have a bowl in the fridge, and make a batch of this delicate white peach and lavender jam. I got the idea from Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard's Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving, a worthy kitchen companion. But, the ladies' recipe calls for pectin and I prefer a more cooked thick old-fashioned style jam. So I combined my usual recipe with some of Topp's and Howards' ideas and came up with this floral scented golden jam.

I pitted and coarsely chopped enough peaches to fill a 6 quart container and covered the fruit with 6 cups of sugar and let the fruit sit overnight in the refrigerator. The next day I covered 12 tablespoons of dried lavender flowers with about 1 1/2 cups boiling water and let sit for 20 minutes (the dogs got a quick walk while that was steeping). Into my largest pot went the fruit mixture, the lavender water (strained of the flowers), and 6 TBs of lemon juice. I brought the pot to a boil and let it simmer until the fruit was soft and a drop placed on a plate left in the freezer for 15 minutes firmed up to a consistency I liked for our latest batch of jam. I poured the mixture into sterilized jars and sealed as usual.

Preserving the taste of spring, one jar at a time.