One day, back in June, this was facing me.
Glorious, fresh peaches that my mother and I had picked straight off the tree. Oh, the beauty of peaches! The colors are so wonderful. And, the taste is divine.
But, now the work. Something has to be done when you have peaches in these kinds of quantities. My mother has childhood memories of her grandmother always having spiced peaches. Since spiced peaches are super easy to make (much easier than jelly or jam), I decided that was the way to go. Here is the recipe I used, if you’d like to try it one day. Unlike jelly and jam, you don’t have to cut up the peaches or take out the seed. You put the whole, peeled peach in the jar to can it.
I gave away all but one of the jars of spiced peaches to my mother because what I was really after was the leftover syrup in the bottom of the pan. Talk about tasty stuff! I cooked it down and made what I have called Peach Glaze which I couldn’t wait to try on ham or pork or even chicken (although apparently my daughter isn’t too keen on the peach/chicken combination).
Of course, it’s not often that I purchase a ham or even a roast. Yesterday, I decided to go ahead and purchase a nice pork roast so that I could try out the glaze. And, without any ado whatsoever, I now have it in the crock pot, cooking away. My mouth is watering. 
I will leave you with this photo, which has absolutely nothing to do with peaches or ham or crock pots. ha! It is the very first bloom after planting my gloriosa lily. I had never seen a gloriosa so I was eagerly awaiting its arrival.
August 5, 2012 at 3:27 pm
OMG… those peaches get me hungry! I just took a canning class and still a bit apprehensive about making my first jam on my own, but I’d really like to make peaches, too.
August 5, 2012 at 7:31 pm
I have a crock pot recipe for a peach cobbler your post reminded me of. I don’t have access to freshly picked peaches, but I may “pick” some up at the grocery store this week. Your glaze and spiced peaches sound great. Heather