Summer in a Jar

Every summer we spend some time in the mountains of Virginia, along the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park.  There is everything we love there from beautiful trails to hike to wineries.   One of the things that has become tradition for us is to spend some time at the orchard picking peaches.  The first few years we did this we picked enough for me to make a few peach cobblers upon our return home.  Then, three years ago we lost track of how many peaches we were picking.  It doesn't take long to pick a ton of peaches.  We came home with more peaches than we could use up before they would rot.  Since I had just recently started canning it was only natural to can some of those beauties!  They looked so pretty in the jars and it gave me great satisfaction to see those jars lined up on the shelf in the basement.  I wanted to open a jar right away.  But I made myself wait until the leaves had all fallen from the trees and the first frost had come and gone. 

Opening that first jar of peaches was like opening a jar of summer!  They smelled so fresh!  And the taste!  It was like a jar full of sunshine, they were so sweet and delicious!  I somehow managed to make those jars of peaches last us all winter.  When the last jar was opened and eaten, there wasn't much time left before we would once again be back in the orchards. 

The next year I decided I wanted to try my hand at peach jam as well.  That turned out perfectly!  I ate more English muffins with peach jam on them than I had ever eaten before.  The peaches once again came out beautifully!

This year we picked a fair amount of peaches once again.  I still had a few jars of jam so opted to not make any of that this year.  But once again I have a shelf full of peaches!  Last night was a cold and rainy day; one of those really miserable Fall days.  I made a pot of soup for dinner and decided we needed a little taste of summer in our day.  Down to the basement I went and brought up a jar of peaches.  They were just what we needed to brighten our day!