Millions of peaches, peaches for me

Ok, besides being a very silly Presidents of the United States song, this was my Sunday. I found the website for a local orchard and they said their peaches were ripe for the pickin'! So, I made plans to pick peaches, and come home and can them. I was a little disappointed in the helpfulness of the high-schooled staff, as they did not know to tell me that the peaches were in fact NOT ripe and ready for picking. I walked all over the very vast orchard looking for ripe fruit, but alas, they were all small, hard as rocks, and in most cases green. Thankfully, it was not as hot as it has been!


So, I ended up buying some of the pre-selected fruit (they only had about two bushels out--that should have warned me!).

There were other yummy assortments of fruits as well.


Anyway, I finished my Rosemary-Peach Preserves yesterday, and I am so thrilled they seem to have set up properly (I was timid with my first solo attempt at home canning!). If not, we'll have peach syrup for pancakes! And yes, this is a sweet condiment, and a tad heavy on the rosemary flavor (yes, this is rosemary from my herb garden)! I've only tasted it from the spoon, not actually on bread, where I'm hoping it mellows a little bit. I'm very excited to go fruit picking again (with Bear?) when I can get lots to finish my other goals: Peach Butter, (regular) Peach Jam/Preserves, possibly even some Blackberry Jam (let me say, those blackberries are among the best I've ever had!! SO ripe and succulent!). I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor (haha! had to throw that one in!), even if my housework is lagging a little! Now I just need to finish baking bread as we are STILL out!