The last week of June I did something completely crazy and unlike anything I’ve ever done before. I loaded up our car and drove my two children all the way from Wisconsin to Panama City, Florida. Andy had to work, so it fell to me to drive my two dancing beauties to their last dance competition of the year. Driving all those hours by myself was absolutely exhausting! But it was totally worth it, when we’d arrived in Florida in the early evening, and quickly headed off to find the ocean.
My kids LOVED playing in the ocean. I only wish we’d had more time to frolic, but as we were there for a dance competition, dance they did. It was a wonderful experience, and as we sadly packed up for the return trip, we also added a few “souvenirs” to our car.
Fresh Florida watermelon, a crate of mangoes, and while you can’t see them, a few quarts of ripe and juicy Alabama peaches. We were disappointed with the peaches. Not that they weren’t delicious, but we had been planning on picking our own peaches to bring back home. When we got to the orchard, though, they were no longer allowing people to pick, so we had to settle for buying a few boxes to bring home. The bushels of peaches I had been planning on quickly dwindled to a few handfuls.
As it turns out, that was providential. See, right before our trip, we’d managed to go strawberry picking a second time, and I quickly churned out a few batches of strawberry jam and strawberry-rhubarb jam. I had planned on some peach jam when we got back home, and I started to do just that. But we also had mangoes on hand, so we played with a Peach-Mango Jam which turned out especially delicious! As long as I was canning jam, and had the peaches on hand, I dug into the freezer and pulled out a bag of frozen sour cherries, and then made two batches of Sour Cherry-Peach Jam, oh, is that one good too! AS those jars were sitting out cooling, Andy came home from a week away of work and announced that he had first dibs on a local cherry tree, and the cherries were ready. So the very next morning Andy and the kids headed off to harvest sour cherries.
The sour cherries were a real gift. There was no charge at all for picking them, the owner was just happy to see the cherries go to someone who could use them. The best part was that I had been eyeing the calendar, trying to figure out when we could go cherry picking this year, and it just didn’t seem too likely. All the sudden, I had pounds upon pounds of cherries that all needed to be pitted and preserved. I spent two days pitting those cherries! 14 quarts of them went into the freezer for future baked goods, but as long as I was in a jammy mood, I also made up 12 jars of straight up Sour Cherry Jam.
And then I woke up this morning. 😀 Right there at the top of my newsfeed was the announcement that my local farm was open for raspberry picking. Abigail and I dashed off to the patch right away and came home with nearly 12 pounds of ripe raspberry goodness. These are our favorites.
Half of the raspberries have already become jam, and I’m debating a batch of Raspberry-Peach, but I had to pause because I need more jelly jars. This is the perpetual state that my kitchen has been in for the last week, and it shows no sign of slowing.
I suspect blueberry announcements any day, and Andy has a lead on some grapes for me this year. I’m still on the prowl for good plums and blackberries… One thing is certain. There will be no shortage of jam in our household this winter! I sure am loving this season, though I didn’t expect it all to come on so fast furious all at once! I am thinking I should be thankful that the tomatoes won’t begin ripening in earnest until mid August, and by then most of the fruit preservation should be done, save for apples.
Recipes/Directions coming for the peach-mango as well as the sour cherry-peach jam. Soon. First I need to come up for air!