This is the first time I’ve made up a recipe for canning. I looked at some recipes for preserving peaches with honey and didn’t find exactly what I wanted. It tastes good and we’ll see if it really preserves by opening a jar once a month.

I’ll try to remember to update this post with the final results. This is what I did-

about 7 lbs. peaches (I used seconds so probably a little less than this because there were bad spots)

1/4 cup bottled lemon juice

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 cup honey

Peel, core and dice peaches into a heavy bottomed pot. Add lemon juice and salt. Bring to a boil. Simmer.

I occasionally stirred it to make sure the peaches weren’t sticking but I think by doing that I reduced the temp too often so next time I’ll try not stirring so often.

I cooked mine almost two hours, added the honey and cooked it some more. I probably could have added the honey initially.

Recipes online said to cook it down until it thickens and by reading the comments I found people had trouble getting it to this point. So I’m not sure thickened is the correct word to use. I reduced it until there wasn’t so much liquid. How long it takes will depend on how juicy your peaches are.

Mash with potato masher.

Keep it at a boil while you fill 7 half pint jars. I processed mine 20 minutes because we are at high altitude.

I had an extra 2 cups which was a good thing. Dave is enjoying it on bread. I don’t think I could have stopped him from immediately opening one of the processed jars if I hadn’t had the extra. I expect it will last a couple weeks in the fridge.

The 7 half pint jars of preserves are sitting on my red cabinet in the kitchen so I remember to check them. Assuming they don’t go bad right away, I’ll open one a month for a test. If they look and smell okay, I’ll give it a taste and report back here.

I have some thoughts about tweaking the recipe if it fails. Would keeping the peel on provide some natural form of pectin? I saw recipes online for peach pit jelly. Might the pit provide pectin? Okay, I just googled – what does pectin do and here is what I found-

Pectin is a carbohydrate found mostly in the skin and core of raw fruit. In nature, it functions as the structural “cement” that helps hold cell walls together. In solution, pectin has the ability to form a mesh that traps liquid, sets as it cools, and, in the case of jam, cradles suspended pieces of fruit.

Obviously, I should have done more research before starting out. So success or not, I think next year I’ll leave the skin and pit in during cooking and then strain it.