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Peach season is here! Celebrate with refrigerator jam
Central Texas peach growers have had a rough few years with the weather.
Too much rain, too little rain. Mild winters, late freezes. Hail, gullywashers. You name it, peach growers have faced it. After a number of lackluster seasons, it looks like this will be a good, if not great, year for peaches.
(I hope this doesn’t jinx anything, but I’ve even been hearing whispers that Hill Country farmers could be in for a bumper crop.)
Peaches have been at local farmers markets for a few weeks now, and roadside stands are starting to pop up all over town. Last week at a stand operated by Melody Taylor in front of Jaya Furniture, 902 N. Lamar Blvd., I bought a few pounds of Sentinel peaches grown at Zenner Farm.
Just down the road at the southeast corner of South Lamar Boulevard and Bluebonnet, Ron and Dianne Laird are selling Flavorich and Springold peaches from Mark Prehan Orchard in Stonewall.
I’m working on a story about quick pickles and refrigerator jams for next week’s paper, so I came home and, in just a few steps, turned the peaches into a peach ginger jam.
Rather than go through the process of actually preserving the jam in jars by canning them in a water bath, I made what’s called refrigerator or freezer jam. No matter what fruit you’re using, the process is the same: Cut up the fruit and heat it in a saucepan with sugar and an acid like lemon juice. (You can add pectin to thicken the jam, but most fruit, especially the skins, contain enough pectin naturally that it’s not necessary to add any extra.)
Peaches don’t have as much pectin as, say, citrus fruits, but that’s where the lemon juice and sugar comes in. The mixture thickens as it reduces, and you can test to see if it is thick enough for jam by placing a small spoonful on a cold plate and returning the plate to the freezer. After a few minutes, check the consistency of the jam. If it’s still too runny, cook a little while longer and then test again.
While the fruit mixture is reducing on the stove, place a few clean jars and lids in a pot of water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes to sterilize and remove with tongs.
Once the jam has reached desired consistency, use a funnel or a spoon to fill the jars and let cool. Screw on lids and refrigerate. (You can also use plastic freezer jars, like the kind made by Bell, and store them in the freezer until you’re ready to use.)
I added minced ginger to this batch of peach jam while it was cooking, but you can experiment with adding other fruits, herbs, honey or even liqueur. The jam will keep for several weeks in the fridge, so don’t make a huge batch unless you eat a lot of jam or plan to give some away.
I made just more than two cups of jam from about two pounds of peaches, 1/2 cup sugar and one 1-inch piece of ginger, minced.
Easier, not to mention less messy, than a from-scratch peach pie, but don’t think for a second that I’ll let this peach season go by without making one of those, too.
How are you enjoying the season’s first peaches? Have you ever made refrigerator jam before?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment Categories: Cooking, Eating locally
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By Reid
May 25, 2010 4:49 PM | Link to this
I have a peach tree outside my house that is pretty chock-full right now. I hope I can get to them before the squirrels do! They got just about all of them last year.
By the cosmic cowgirl
May 25, 2010 7:59 PM | Link to this
looks delicious, addie. can’t wait to get messy with all the peaches this year!
By Joann Kirkland
May 26, 2010 5:33 AM | Link to this
I’m gonna try that refrigerator jam!
By kunde
May 9, 2011 7:56 PM | Link to this
Lots of good reading here, thank you! I had been checking on yahoo when I uncovered your submit, I’m going to add your feed to Google Reader, I look forward to a lot more from you.