White Peach Lavender Jam!

When ever I can, I love to make homemade yumminess from the goodness grown on our homestead.  Canning Jams and Jellies has become a tradition for me once the harvest season is upon us.  Blessed Lughnasadh by the way!

I've canned the traditional way...

in the past but the last three harvest seasons I have been using my Ball® FreshTECH Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker.  I'm not affiliated with Ball, I just love this little guy, it makes canning for me go much quicker, less chance of messing it up (I've had jams come out like runny syrup in the past before the Jam maker) and it makes small patches which is perfect for my family.

It came with an awesome recipe booklet...

and there are more recipes online at Ball.  But I also like playing around and tweaking them a little.  Last year I made Pear, Lemon Blue Berry, Blackberry, Apple Butter, Plum Lavender, Asian Plum Sauce and Chipotle Plum.  We had a huge Plum harvest last year.

Today was my first canning of the year...

We went Blackberry picking this morning and I just had to make some jam.  From there I made Pepper Jelly with Jalapenos from the garden and decided to give Peach Jam a try.  I had picked up some locally grown White Peaches and decided to add some of the Lavender we picked earlier this summer from The English Lavender Farm...one of my favorite local farms in the heart of the Applegate Valley.

Beautiful huh?

Okay, so for the recipe...

I followed the instructions for Peach Jam from the booklet and substituted some Lavender Tea (steeped Lavender flowers and stems) for some of the Peach.  I like to use the reduced Sugar recipe over the Traditional...but this time I didn't have as much peach on hand so I went with the Traditional.  I will still use 2/3 cups of Lavender Tea even if I use the reduced Sugar cos' I love the taste of Lavender.

Recipe: 

2 C Crushed Peaches
2/3 C Lavender Tea (see below)
3 Tbsp Ball' Real Fruit Classic Pectin
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice (it called for bottle but I used fresh)
1/2 tsp Butter
3 1/3 C Sugar

Lavender Tea

I just took 2 Tablespoons of Lavender buds, added the stems and poured 2/3 cups of hot boiling water over them.  I let it steep for 20 mins.  Strained it and used the tea.

I followed the rest of the directions in the booklet.  I have to admit that this batch is much sweeter than any Jams I've made before, so I will be trying this again with the Reduced Sugar recipe but none the less it came out deeeelish!

NOTE:  This recipe was adapted from the Ball Automatic Jam and Jelly recipe booklet.  I just love the various recipes I've found online, on how to make fun and tasty jams and jellies on this amazing little cooker that I wanted to contribute a small recipe of my own.  Enjoy!