Peaches and Pesto

I've been getting domestic with my bad self lately thanks to inspiration from my friends April and Rachel. Before April had her baby, they busied themselves with making canned peaches. Since I'm not such a big fan of canned peaches, I decided I could make some peach jam instead.



We went to the Golden Farmer's Market on Saturday and bought an 15 lb. box of peaches. Why so many peaches you ask? Well, it's simple really. I called my aunt to see how many pounds of peaches it would take to make a couple of batches of freezer jam. She got out her recipe and estimated about 4 lbs. for a batch so...eight pounds for a double batch. She thought I should get 10 lbs. just for good measure. So, when boxes only came in 15 lb. sizes (and were cheaper because they were over-ripe!) we though, "eh...we won't have that many left over peaches."

Ha.

When I opened my box of Suregel Pectin (by the way I couldn't find MCP Pectin anywhere so my jam is going to be all runny and I hate you Suregel) it called for 3 lbs. of peaches for a batch of jam. Hmm... that meant I only needed 6 lbs. for two batches leaving me with 9 lbs. of remaining peaches. Lovely.

But no worries. It isn't like I haven't dealt with multiple pounds of over-ripe fruit before. When we lived in Washington, the first time we went to a U-pick Berry Farm we picked 15 lbs. of raspberries. You know, there were three of us and they gave us each 5 lb. buckets. What else do you do with a bucket besides fill it up? I think we used up the last of that jam yesterday.

Aaanyway, we've made peach jam, peach crisp, crushed peaches for Z-cakes, and I'm working on a fresh peach pie as we speak/type.

Oh and the Pesto? What can I say...it's delicious. I got the recipe from a client I had in graduate school and the promise of a batch of pesto is pretty much the main reason I grow basil in my garden each year.