Peach Harvest turns to Jam

In Colorado, Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of summer; a time of year when temperatures still reach summer highs, but they are tempered by a distinctly autumnal breeze. It’s during this weekend that my family made our annual pilgrimage to Cedaredge, Colorado. It’s beautiful, it’s peaceful, it is a tiny piece of Americana that has not changed with the rest of the world (save for the addition of an obligatory Howard Johnson hotel). My grandparents live a few miles outside of town, on what we fondly call “the farm.” Their house lies on acreage halfway up the Grand Mesa, and overlooks the craggy silouette of the San Juans to the south, with two creeks converging on their property, some old sheds and chicken houses, cows at pasture, scrub brush, and…the peach trees.

At an elevation of about 7,200 feet, the peaches ripen late in the summer and even into early autumn. So, when we arrived, the trees were heavy with fruit.

We had not been there more than an hour before the family rallied for a spontaneous peach harvest party- ladders were found, baskets, and it wasn’t long before we were loaded down with peaches. Nearly every picker had the evidence of peach juice on their faces- they were so sweet and full in flavour!

After enjoying the beauty of my grandparents farm and catching up with family, we headed home, our cars brimming with peaches. It was a group effort, to say the least, to get the peaches from tree to jar. According to my calculations, we picked 78 cups of peaches, filling 52 jars of various shapes and sizes with jam. My sisters Emily, Megan, and I divided the canning process into two days in order to keep ourselves motivated, and to be able to still make some time to feed our families. I know, I know. Making jam is supposed to be something you do breezily, upon arriving home from a farmers’ market, but this is how it tends to work in our family… all or nothing, and “all” is usually pretty extreme.

Do I want to make any jam in the near future? No. Did I have fun doing it? Yes. Especially because there was lavender — again. No, you have not heard the end of lavender from me! While we were in Provence exactly 6 years ago, we bought a jar of peach lavender jam, and let me tell you- it was just as peach jam should be. I made it for myself a year or two later, and this year having still plenty of lavender in the garden,  it was the obvious choice for our bounty of peaches. For the purists, we made plenty of pure peach jam, and for the adventurous, a few jars of peach jam with Bourbon whiskey and Madagascar vanilla beans. Something for everyone, I say!

Lavender Peach Jam

by Stephanie Kunstle

Ingredients:

• 16 c peaches, pitts removed, roughly sliced
• 8 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 8 c sugar
• 8 tsp. fresh lavender buds
• pinch or two of sea salt
• 1 Tbsp. butter

Preparation:

1. Peel peaches, and remove pitts. They do not need to be evenly sliced, just toss them as they are, after skins and pitts are removed, into the pot! As  you work, add lemon juice and stir thoroughly to keep the peaches from browning. Add sugar, lavender, salt and combine.
2. Over medium heat, bring peaches to simmer, stirring frequently, and taking care not to burn any fruit on the bottom. I avoid using pectin (which helps acheive that firm texture) because I prefer my jams softer and more natural in texture, but this means you will be standing at the stove longer to cook the fruit down to the desired consistency. For a batch this size, plan on about 2 hours of stove time.
3. A foam will develop: when it does, add a nice pat of butter and stir in well. If it’s still foaming, at a bit more.
4. Using a potato masher, crush the peaches to desired chunkiness.
5. Place a small plate in the freezer and chill well. As the peaches begin to cook down and thicken, spoon a little onto the frozen plate to cool it quickly and check for thickness. Some like their jam runny, others like it very thick. It’s up to you when you decide to pull it off the heat.
6. Once the jam has acheived desired consistency, remove from heat. Fill hot, sterilized jars with the jam, making sure the rims are clean, screw on lids, and process in a steam canner or a pot of boiling water (not recommended- high risk for burns here!) for amount of time advised for your altitude. Here at more than 7,100 ft., I process mine for 25 minutes. Remove from canner and let cool. You will hear the lovely little “pop” of each lid as it seals itself — a very happy sound after all the work!