More food. And then more food.
I just made watermelonade. I think it needs more mixing with actual lemonade, but it’s pretty tasty for being just blended, strained watermelon with some lemon juice and a pinch of salt. I was supposed to add sugar, but these watermelons we’ve been getting are so sweet there’s just no point. I have, however, had quite enough of watermelon for the most part. We’ve received four in our local food box – Enough Already! There’s really only so much watermelon a girl can eat.
But this is not really about watermelon. This is about a different fruit, the peach. Remember when I posted those pictures of driving out west of here? Well, I actually made that trip in order to get these:
What’s that you say? You can’t see the lovely produce well enough? it IS pretty, isn’t it? So here you go:
I got all these peaches and tomatoes in order to can them. Guess how long it took me to peel all those peaches and tomatoes? Somewhere around 3 and a half hours. Plus about four more to get everything else boiled, chopped, peeled, cooked, and processed. But that’s not the whole reason this is yet another story of How Miriam Is Nuts.
The real reason is that I canned not only peach preserves (2 quarts) but also tomatoes (1 quart), peach salsa (1 quart) and peach jam (2 pints). It has all been very tasty. HOWEVER, let me tell you about lesson number One about a small kitchen and multiple recipes: DON’T DO IT. It would’ve been fine if I’d stuck to two. Three would’ve been way too many. Four was ridiculous.
With me, nothing can be simple (much to my husband’s eternal dismay). I tend to make things into a giant, messy production, and I was really lucky that on this particular Sunday that these were canned, I was really lucky that my Mom was staying the night. Without her help, I would’ve been up s*** creek without a paddle, as the saying goes. But as the other saying goes, all’s well that ends well. That’s my motto and I’m sticking to it (for now). Recipes after the break.
