Scrumping and vanilla peach jam...

I went scrumping the other day (scrumping - stealing fruit from someone else's trees. British.  Its considered less bad than, say, shoplifting, but adults still disapprove) and got some beautiful peaches.

I was actually given permission by the owner of the tree but it still felt like stealing as they weren't home at the time!

So yesterday, I washed them then soaked them in boiling water to make peeling their skins off easier.

That worked well.

I roughly cut them up, removing the stones (these were free stone peaches not cling stones)...

I ended up with 1.7kg of fruit.

By this time it was time for me to go to work so I sprinkled them with 200gms of sugar (all I had) and covered them in cling wrap ready for me to cook later.

.

When I got home last night, with more sugar, I put them into a large pot and added a further 1.3kgs sugar and a vanilla pod that I scraped the seeds out of and threw in.   Brought it to a good boil, skimmed off most of the scum that formed then let it simmer away until it had reduced down. I'm not sure really how long I cooked it for.

Once bottled, I turn them upside down - this ensured the seals pop when they have cooled.

Tah Dah!  Seven lovely jars of vanilla peach jam!

My pantry is filling up - I now have apricot, strawberry and peach jam, cucumber pickles and pickled beetroot in there.

We had a foggy morning here this morning - a good sign that autumn is on her way - hooray!

~

What else have you been bottling and preserving?  

I'd like to try making fresh salsa and some tomato sauce. Our Foodland had sauce tomatoes out the other day but I was busy over the weekend do I didn't get any. Hopefully sometime this week, they'll have more.
 Have a nice day,

Cheers - Joolz xx