B E B E R E

On Monday morning I cleared the last of the peaches off of Raphaella's tree. Some were still hard, so left them on the counter to ripen up a bit more. Last night, gathered up as many small jars as I could find and washed them. Peeled and cut up the peaches, which by then were ripe enough.

Tonight, I'll sterilize the jars and make my jam.

Peach jam is one of my favorites, as it's usually the first fruit of the fall season and it's so simple. All I need to remember is a 3:4 sugar:fruit ratio with a bit of water to help it all cook down.

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I've put a sheet under the pin cherry tree and have been collecting about a cup of fruit every morning and evening. I figure that after about a week of this, I'll have enough fruit to make some jelly. Since pin cherries don't have a ton of pectin, I may have to combine them with some apple peels and cores to make the juice. Will need to look that all up.

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This weekend, I hope to get out west to find some wild grapes (best for making jelly) at Arija's. Also need to check on my little stand of crabapples on McGrath Highway. There seems to have been some sort of blight going around as a lot of the trees I usually collect from have had awfully eaten up leaves and hardly any fruit.

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Since the lime marmalade I made last year was such a hit, I figured I'd make some more again this year, along with some lemon. That's a mental note, by the way, to go looking for lemons and limes on sale.