Peaches, blackberries and relish, oh my!

Did I say lazy weekend?  I spoke too soon.  We stopped at a roadside market just south of where we live and picked up 1/2 bushel of South Carolina peaches and three pints of blackberries.  I pretty much ate blackberries all day.  They were to die for.  The peaches were excellent too.  We even got to keep the basket they sold them in which will be a nice garden basket for collecting our crop from the day along with eggs.  We then spent most of Sunday peeling peaches and canning.  I've never had much luck peeling peaches without them ending up a big mushy mess but I think this time I figured out a trick.  Instead of just boiling the peach for 30 seconds then dunking it in cold water, I made a small cross in the skin with a knife before boiling it.  Seemed to help.  Anyone else have any good tips for peeling peaches?

We ended up with eight quarts of peaches in light syrup (one of my favorite things to eat on yogurt for breakfast in the winter) and six half pints of blackberry jam.  We also had an abundance of cucumbers and hot peppers from the garden so Lewie made a batch of hot cucumber relish.  He kinda used a few recipes and went along with what we had so it ended up having shredded cucumber, hot peppers, onions, celery, mustard seed, celery seed, canning salt and apple cider vinegar.  Have yet to try it, but the smell was wonderful and looks so pretty in the jars.  I'm sure it will be good on a brat or sausage. 

Strawberry picking & recipe roundup

This past week we went to a local farm, The Fruit & Berry Patch, to pick this seasons first harvest:  strawberries!  I've been craving strawberries lately so on a nice day with great weather it seemed like the perfect thing to do.  The farm was littered with little red berries all over and it was so hard not to just sit there and eat them.

We left with almost 52 lbs of strawberries!  Here is what I made with some of our bounty this year:

Old Fashioned Strawberry Jam and canned Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling via Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving:

Strawberry fruit roll ups via Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It: And Other Cooking Projects:

Strawberry Icebox Pie via Martha Stewart's New Pies and Tarts: 150 Recipes for Old-Fashioned and Modern Favorites:

I also have a batch of strawberry vinegar aging in the basement that should be ready in about four weeks to can.  I made this two years and it has become a household favorite.  All I do is mix some of the vinegar with sour cream and ta-da, instant strawberry salad dressing!  I dried about three cups of strawberries for future use in granola as well.  With the rest I just froze them for use in smoothies, more jam, and popsicles.  Even our chickens enjoyed some strawberries:

If you'd like to find a place in your area to pick strawberries from, check out Pick Your Own.  It's our go to for finding local pick-your-own farms.  I can't wait to go back for the next season of fruit, perhaps blueberries, raspberries or peaches.