Peach time!

[Drew51]

I much prefer the smashed up peaches in jam.

In general I don’t like preserves like Strawberry. I much prefer no chunks. One exception is tart cherries.
I harvested my PF Lucky 13 today.

[IowaJer]

I harvested my PF Lucky 13 today

Wow, nice table of awesomeness Drew!

I’ve not had a Paul Friday peach before, but I’m fix’n to…

I had one of the 6 PF-17 drop, I think from wind as there is no noticeable damage anywhere. It’s on the counter still pretty firm, but it’ll be my first taste of a Paul Friday peach.

I sort of like the chunks in the peach jam, but it just doesn’t work for me to only have them diced. But all mashed up it spreads better and the flavor and aroma seems a lot better to me as well.

[Levers101]

Ball Low/No Sugar Pectin in way better than the Sure-Jell stuff. I used the Ball stuff last year and was able to make several low-sugar preserves (Cherry, Strawberry, Black Raspberry, and Red Raspberry). There are recipes provided for no sugar added online or on the label for the Ball stuff.

This year I used the Sure-Jell pink box because both places I looked were sold out of the Ball stuff. I followed the directions for to make wild blackberry and black velvet aprium jam. Stuff is waay too sweet.

Ball has a recipe calculator online too: https://www.freshpreserving.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-BALL-Site/en_US/Page-Pectin

[Drew51]

This year I used the Sure-Jell pink box

That is what i use, but i would never add as much sugar as they suggest and mine gels every time
A 2-1 ratio works for me 2 cups fruit to one cup sugar and many think my jam is tart. I never tried it with peaches though. I also add more pectin via apple juice, and more acidity via lime or lemon juice.
I have used the calcium setting agents too that require no sugar at all.

[IowaJer]

Ball has a recipe calculator online too

Thanks for that link, that is real cool! I will try Ball stuff once the Madison’s are ready.

but i would never add as much sugar as they suggest

I have one box of it left and I could sacrifice a few peaches to test out the much lower sugar amount. I would way prefer less sugar.

Too sweet kinda kills stuff, I did that with a batch of CJ cherries last year - not good!

[Drew51]

I have one box of it left and I could sacrifice a few peaches to test out the much lower sugar amount. I would way prefer less sugar.

That would be cool to do, I have that table of peaches to experiment too.
I agree I can’t even eat store bought jam.@Levevers101 I have to try and find the Ball stuff and try it out too. Thanks for posting about that, very helpful, more info is always good!

Too sweet kinda kills stuff

I agree it does! Probably why I don’t like the low acid fruit

It may be my technique too that makes it work, here is how I do just about all jams.

Black Currants 2017

I tried many methods and i developed a formula that works for most fruits. When I look for recipes I'm only looking at ingredients. I have my own way to make jam set. I can get a loose set to a strong set depending on fruit. Loose sets will still be stiff enough if refrigerated, it's not that loose. I don't even test set anymore it is so reliable. If fruit is basic, I follow other recipes like for figs. For all berries and tree fruits my method works well, but a few failures have occurred, work…

[mamuang]

Drew,

Those looked so good. You’ll be having peaches coming out your ears

[Drew51]

You’ll be having peaches coming out your ears

I know. Even a little panicked what am I going to do with these? I just harvested nectarines last week. Almost as many. I’m going to spend the rest of the day freezing a bunch, the little ones etc, and I’m going to thin a lot more next year. i just don’t need all of these. I just mailed a fig out and took some for the postal clerks.

[Spartan]

Greetings:

I make peach jam using sure-jell lite (pink box). I cut the sugar down to 2.75 cups instead of 3 cups and it was sweet enough for me. Since this pectin supposedly bonds to the calcium not the sugar molecule, I ignored the warning on the directions that says “do not reduce the quantity of sugar or it may not set”. It worked and tasted just fine. I did panic as it did not set as fast as other jams/jellies I make with this pectin but by next morning it was fine. I ended up with 5.75 jars from the recipe so 5 were canned and went to the basement and the .75 jar went right to the refrigerator. Way too good to last very long.

[mamuang]

My first ever Saturn peaches from a graft in 2015. Got 20+ peaches. Two with some rot, the rest are clean. Happy with its ability to resist rot a lot better than my Easternglo nectarines.

The one peach in the left lower corner is my one and only Ernie’s Choice. A Good size peach at 6.30 oz.

[mrsg47]

You had a much better peach year than you thought! They look great. Peachy!

[Olpea]

they are currently more like baseballs, than the softball sized Loring. Maybe it is the impact of Citation rootstock, while Loring is on Lovel (much bigger tree).

Bob,

Loring is just a plain huge peach. It’s sports tend to be big too. Glenglo is a Loring seedling and it’s also very large, for an early peach.

[Antmary]

Ripe yellow Frost peaches and a single red Mary Jane peach on the left

Mary Jane has dense flesh with very good sweetness and good acid balance. I like it very much. Frost peach is softer, juicier and milder. My younger son likes Frost better because it is not so intense flavored.

[IL847]

I am wondering if any one add any spices into the peach jam？？I add few cardamom, it turned out very we’ll. What else might go well with peach? Nutmeg? Cinnamon? else?

[BobVance]

Loring is just a plain huge peach.

That’s good to know. My peach/nects trees on Citation tend to be pretty small, so if I had Loring on Citation, it would look like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree- one peach would pull it over.

I think I remember White River being pretty big too, but this year they are more like baseball sized (if that). Of course, the tree is pretty loaded. I’ve got it tied up and hopefully it will make it to harvest (soon, I think).

Yes, that is some spare coaxial cable I’ve tied it up with…

[mrsg47]

Cinnamon!

[Olpea]

Bob,

I have a few questions about White River, if you don’t mind? Has it been a regular (good) cropper for you in finicky spring weather? I used to have one tree of it a several years ago and I recall it bloomed very early (the tree died before I ever got a harvest).

How would you rate the quality (i.e. taste) of the fruit for a white peach?

Couple of side questions: Your White County photo shows spotty fruit. It looks like scab to me, but scab and bac. spot look very similar on the fruit. Bac. spot shows up in the leaves, scab doesn’t. I don’t see any shot hole on the leaves. Did the leaves look that clean earlier in the season?

Btw, I’m sure you’ve recognized the mottling on the leaf tissue. Do you worry much about it?

[Sara_in_philly]

Mamuang, I have one methley and one Byron gold plum. I bought them at Walmart, so accuracy of label is questionable. By I know for sure the one labeled as Byron gold is yellow plum, and the one labeled as methley is a purple plum. I bought them cheap to get scion wood to graft to peach tree and ended up planting them.

[Sara_in_philly]

My white peach(labeled as georgia bell) has the same spots as Bob’s. I had that for years. The yellow peach next to it does not have. I will go take a picture later.

[Sara_in_philly]

Wow, Manmuang, your 2015 graft already bear 20 some peaches! That’s very impressive.