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| Canned Peaches |
Another grey and cool day, on Saturday, although the sun did shine in the afternoon. I spent the morning replying to blog comments, responding to a couple of emails I had received, visiting a few blogs, etc.
I spent the afternoon canning the peaches I had picked. But, first, I took a few peaches over to neighbor S. Then, I made a light sugar syrup (5 1/2 cups of water, 2 1/2 cups of sugar, some lemon juice and a piece or two of cinnamon stick), sterilized the jars, and prepared the fruit, peeling the peaches and slicing them. I was disappointed to see that the perfect looking peaches had defective stones, inside them! Quite a few of the stones were hollow inside and some of them were starting to spoil! I'd cut into the peach and the knife would go straight through the hollow stone! Fortunately, the peaches, themselves, were fine and tasted sweet. A few were a bit bruised and I cut off the bruised portions. Two peaches had started to spoil, however, and I added them to the composting pile. It took me some time to prepare the peaches and then, I processed them in a water bath for 30 minutes. I have leftover sugar syrup that I kept in the fridge; I might be able to use them for the rest of the peaches, when they are ripe enough to pick.
By the time I got the peaches in the water bath, it was already 4:00 p.m. and I realized that I had not eaten anything, yet! I had snacked on a slice or two of peaches, but, I had not had my brunch! I quickly toasted two slices of bread and ate them with a slice of cheese!
After resting a bit and having a cup of tea, I cooked dinner - chicken curry, dhal, and beetroot curry, with the two small beets I had pulled from the garden:
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| Curried Beetroot (including leaves) |
In case anyone is interested, I first cut off the leaves and boiled the beetroot; then, peeled and cut the beetroot into small pieces. Then, I sauteed the cut up leaves and the beets in a little bit of oil, added curry leaves, chili powder, curry powder, salt, etc., and finally, added some coconut milk and lemon juice and cooked the beetroots until the milk was mostly absorbed. This type of curry doesn't have a lot of gravy or sauce. I had leftover rice in the fridge, which I warmed up when it was time to have dinner.
After dinner, I called Aunt C back; she had called while I preparing the peaches and I had told her I was in the middle of canning and I will call her back. Afterwards, I called friend R and chatted with her for a bit. Then, my daughter and I videochatted.
Then, I watched some online videos and lost track of time!
Today, I am grateful for:
- Beetroot and peaches from the garden
- The four jars of peaches I was able to can
- Canned coconut milk
- Chats with family and friends
- Being well enough to do canning, etc. (last year, I couldn't do anything!)
Today's joyful activity was canning peaches!
How is your weekend coming along?
You did well with your four jars of peaches considering all were not perfect, you are so fortunate to be able to grow and pick them in your garden.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Eileen; yes, I'm so blessed to be able to grow and pick my own peaches! As well as lemons and oranges. :)
DeleteI'm not sure if my previous comment posted or not as I am having some computer problems. You did well with four jars of peaches considering some were not perfect. You are so fortunate to be able to grow and pick them from your garden. I'm sure I would be taste testing a few during preparations too.
ReplyDeleteMy weekend has been busy unpacking and doing laundry and trying to get around not being able to leave blog comments but I think I've discovered the problem now thank goodness.
Hi Eileen, yes, your previous comment did go through, as you can see. :) It seems that quite a few people are having trouble posting comments on other blogs. I am not quite sure what is going on with Blogger!
DeleteYou've had a busy weekend! Welcome back from your holiday! I need to go over to your blog and read your latest post! I hope you had a lovely time! :)
You have been busy and how four jars of peaches to show for your efforts.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the beetroot curry recipe. I've added it to my 'Cooking with Bless' folder.
I've had a quiet weekend as planned and I feel rested and ready to face the week ahead.
Yes, I'm proud of my four jars of canned peaches! I used the larger, pint sized jars, this time (the last time I canned peaches - which was also the first time - I used the half-pint jars). For me, the time consuming part was peeling and cutting the peaches.
DeleteYou are welcome - I thought of you when I wrote out how to make the beetroot curry and wondered if you'd make a note of it! :D I didn't add any onions, this time, but, you can add onions, too; saute them along with the cut up beets and leaves. This is my favorite way to eat beetroot.
Glad you were able to relax and rest over the weekend. Hope the week ahead is a good one!
You have nice start to your preserving this year.
ReplyDeleteHow are the peaches?
Even accounting for your late rising, not eating until 4:00 is a long time!
I'm glad you realized it and took a break and ate something.
The beetroot curry sounds good. I don't often eat beets. Not sure why really. I had a beet & goat cheese (and some other things I can't remember) "sandwich" as an appetizer at a restaurant once and that was very good. (Back in the days when I used to go to restaurants :(
Thank you, Debra. The peaches were sweet and good, but, a lot of them had something that is called "split pit" - where the pit inside is either split or not formed at all! Some of them had split all the way to the stem, leaving an opening at the top, which allows air/fungus/insects, etc. to enter the peach. I didn't find any insects, but, one or two had started to spoil from the inside out. Even with the split pit, the peaches were fine to eat (as long as they were not moldy inside). I've been reading up on what causes split pits and will be discussing it with M, later.
DeleteYes, I have a cup of tea (with milk and sugar) when I first wake up and then, have brunch around 2:00 p.m., usually. But, yesterday, I forgot to eat, until my aunt called (while I was still getting the peaches into the jars) and as part of the brief conversation, asked if I had had lunch! LOL.
I like beetroot curried like that, or, boiled with salt and pepper. In Sri Lanka, we used to often make a tiered vegetable sandwich for parties, with a layer of beetroot, a layer of carrots, and a layer of asparagus between slices of bread, cut into small "fingers". :)
Hi Bless, I'm not very fond of coconut milk, but with the beets in that a curry, it sounds really good. I may try it sometime. I am in Atlanta for my niece's wedding this evening. I'm glad to read in previous posts that you are well and health checks went well. How wonderful your little tree provided four jars of peaches!
ReplyDeleteHi Celie, you can use any type of milk that you like - dairy milk, almond milk, oat milk, etc., if you don't care for coconut milk. You could, probably, not add any milk, at all and just saute the beets or just add a little water, if you prefer; I often make certain vegetable curries like that, without adding milk. :)
DeleteThank you; I'm glad the health checks went well and so happy to harvest peaches from my tree!
Best wishes to your niece and I hope you are having a lovely time. Take care.
Boy those peaches look good Bless. Jean
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jean. A lot of them had something called a "split pit" where the stone/pit in the middle of the fruit had not developed, properly. It felt weird to cut into the fruit and cut right through the center of the fruit!
DeleteYou did well with your canning and it was fortunate that there was plenty of good fruit to work with. How satisfying to have those jars to store for future use. I'm intrigued by your beet curry. I'm sure it must be delicious.
ReplyDeleteWe wandered down to the river and to the creek that runs into it. In one spot in the creek there were logs and debris in the water which have totally disappeared with the rush of water that must have come down with the torrential rains on Friday. It would have been interesting to see happening.
Thank you, Bushlady! A bit too much standing to peel and cut the peaches - next time, must remember to sit at the dining table to do so.
DeleteBeet curry is a favorite way to eat beets and their greens. :)
Glad you had a walk to the river and the creek. Sounds like it really poured with rain, for the water to carry off the logs and debris from the creek!
Your peaches look delicious. In my ever present fight with the critters in my yard for food I am growing for us, it looks like green beans might be the only thing I will have enough to can.
ReplyDeleteThe peaches taste great, but, a lot of them had split pits! Sorry to hear that the critters are helping themselves to your garden produce!
DeleteThose peaches look gorgeous. I think it's amazing that you can store that summery taste away.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lyssa. I am so glad that I can preserve them for my daughter to enjoy when she comes home on her next visit. :)
DeleteI've never heard of curried beetroot before. Usually I eat mine roasted with some goats cheese, or with a salad.
ReplyDeleteWell done on getting all those peaches canned. X
Growing up, I only had curried or boiled beetroots; I like them either way. Thank you! I both canned and made a sauce with the peaches!
DeleteI have never had curried beetroots - sounds like something I should try.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of my favorite ways to have beets. :)
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