Peach Jam, Apple Butter, and Apple-Onion Chutney
by Kate
Yesterday, my mother and I canned for 8 hours. My mother has been canning, pressing, processing, and storing food for decades (including the homemade baby food she fed my sister and I), but I’ve only been in the game for a few years. When I came home from college in 2007, I hadn’t seen a New England autumn since high school. I had been sweating it out in the Texas heat for four years and had developed an obsession with making my apple butter as part of my homecoming. It’s one of my favorite spreads; nothing beats apple butter on a warm English Muffin or over a piece of pork.
When I expressed my desire to make apple butter to my mom, she obliged. She had been canning intermittently since my childhood making the occasional zucchini relish or pickled peppers, but my motivation and determination for apple butter put us into a canning frenzy these past few years. Since arriving home from college, we’ve put up a variety of canned goods: jams, relishes, peppers, dilly beans, sauces, canned fruits, and butters. It’s exhausting work and culminates in more dirty dishes than a Thanksgiving dinner, but totally worth it.
This year, due to the dual graduation of my sister and I, plus my bar exam studying, and my post-bar traveling, I wasn’t able to join my mother to can until I arrive at home about week ago. We immediately made plans to go to Bishop’s, a local orchard, to grab a truck-load of fruits.
Yesterday, my mother and I canned for 8 hours. My mother has been canning, pressing, processing, and storing food for decades (including the homemade baby food she fed my sister and I), but I’ve only been in the game for a few years. When I came home from college in 2007, I hadn’t seen a New England autumn since high school. I had been sweating it out in the Texas heat for four years and had developed an obsession with making my apple butter as part of my homecoming. It’s one of my favorite spreads; nothing beats apple butter on a warm English Muffin or over a piece of pork.
When I expressed my desire to make apple butter to my mom, she obliged. She had been canning intermittently since my childhood making the occasional zucchini relish or pickled peppers, but my motivation and determination for apple butter put us into a canning frenzy these past few years. Since arriving home from college, we’ve put up a variety of canned goods: jams, relishes, peppers, dilly beans, sauces, canned fruits, and butters. It’s exhausting work and culminates in more dirty dishes than a Thanksgiving dinner, but totally worth it.
This year, due to the dual graduation of my sister and I, plus my bar exam studying, and my post-bar traveling, I wasn’t able to join my mother to can until I arrive at home about week ago. We immediately made plans to go to Bishop’s, a local orchard, to grab a truck-load of fruits.
Although I would prefer to make blueberry and raspberry jam every year, it requires a long day of picking early in the growing season. This year we didn’t have the time to pick in May and June and our own blueberry bushes were picked off pretty good by the birds. But our late arrival this year did not deter our readiness to pick.
I was happy to see that we caught the last few days of peach season as peach jam had been on my canning bucket list for years. We picked a large bag of each peaches, pears, and Cortland apples. At $1.25 a pound for pick-your-own fruit, we left Bishop’s $55 later. We picked on a Friday and planned to can on Monday to allow proper ripening time.
On Monday morning, my mother was already cooking down apples by the time I got to the kitchen. During that day we made the following:
· 2 batches of peach jam
· 1 gallon bag of peach pie filling/ chopped frozen peaches
· ½ batch of apple-onion chutney
· 2 large jars of unsweetened apple sauce
· About a gallon of apple butter
We’ve still got the pears to process. My mom is thinking pear butter, I’m leaning towards canned pears. We’ll see who wins.
Recipes:Peach Jam: The recipe on the back of the Pectin box (plus a little extra fruit)
(*we prefer the low-sugar recipe when we can find the low-sugar pectin)
Apple Butter: apple puree and nutmeg and cinnamon to taste
Hint: cook down the apple butter until it peaks, and then cook it down some more. The previous years we were impatient with our canning and our apple butter turned out to be more of an intensely flavored apple sauce. The thicker, the better.
Apple and Onion Chutney: One onion, five large apples, one peach, one pear (I added a peach and a pear for a little extra sweetness), yellow mustard seed, raisins, toasted fennel seed, ginger, salt, pepper.
I was happy to see that we caught the last few days of peach season as peach jam had been on my canning bucket list for years. We picked a large bag of each peaches, pears, and Cortland apples. At $1.25 a pound for pick-your-own fruit, we left Bishop’s $55 later. We picked on a Friday and planned to can on Monday to allow proper ripening time.
On Monday morning, my mother was already cooking down apples by the time I got to the kitchen. During that day we made the following:
· 2 batches of peach jam
· 1 gallon bag of peach pie filling/ chopped frozen peaches
· ½ batch of apple-onion chutney
· 2 large jars of unsweetened apple sauce
· About a gallon of apple butter
We’ve still got the pears to process. My mom is thinking pear butter, I’m leaning towards canned pears. We’ll see who wins.
Recipes:Peach Jam: The recipe on the back of the Pectin box (plus a little extra fruit)
(*we prefer the low-sugar recipe when we can find the low-sugar pectin)
Apple Butter: apple puree and nutmeg and cinnamon to taste
Hint: cook down the apple butter until it peaks, and then cook it down some more. The previous years we were impatient with our canning and our apple butter turned out to be more of an intensely flavored apple sauce. The thicker, the better.
Apple and Onion Chutney: One onion, five large apples, one peach, one pear (I added a peach and a pear for a little extra sweetness), yellow mustard seed, raisins, toasted fennel seed, ginger, salt, pepper.
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