Peach Pickin' and Jam

In my never ending quest for fun, sun and summer activities, I took the kids peach picking to make some yummy peach jam. My mom taught me the fine art of canning and it's something I want to pass down to my kids.  And some of the best stone fruit farms in the country are about an hour outside SF...which means sunny warm weather. (We have been fogged in for about three weeks now and in desperate need for some sunny vitamin D.)  We visited about four farms, picking peaches at two of them.  The kids were full of energy and enthusiasm at the first farm which is where we picked the most.  The peaches were sooooo juicy and sweet!

The "fruit" of our labor...ha, ha,ha.  We picked two buckets full before the kidos got too hot.  And I wasn't looking for perfect ones...since I was making jam, I was going for really ripe, sugary ones.

We stopped at another farm for some fresh strawberries, tomatoes and squash...Timo enjoying one of the strawberries he hand picked.

The next farm was nectarines and plums.  This place had wagons which re-energized the kids on their picking campaign.  They were picking like crazy...trying to fill up their wagons.  I had to reign them in and let them know that would be way too much. 

Timo unloading the goods to be weighed.  These were smaller than the peaches so we kept these for snacking fruit.

We stopped at one more farm for some corn before heading home.  I loved it so much, I think this will be an annual trip.  Next year I'll be more prepared to get a few bushel of tomoates for canning and cucumbers to make pickles.

A few days later it was time to make jam!  We made a trip to Walmart to get canning jars and pectin which made the kids even more excited to get home and make some jam.  I decided to do the cooked jam instead of the quick freezer jam, just so the kids could see the whole process.  They helped peel, pit and cook down the peaches.  Then we weighed out the sugar and they helped stir...asking a ton of questions all along the way. 

But in the end it was well worth it.  It took about 5 hours to make and the kids got to help from tree to jar!  The work has already paid off...their new favorite breakfast is toast or waffle with peach jam and now they have some homemade gifts for their teachers this year.