The Georgia Peach makes Peach Jelly!

Last weekend I made my weekly run through the grocery salvage store.  It's quickly becoming my favorite place to shop.  I've gotten great deals there.  You just have to look carefully at expiration dates and such although I don't buy much of anything with an expiration date.  I have bought cases 

But the true gem of shopping at that store is that they get a ton of produce in. I got flats of strawberries (12 cartons) for $1.50 each.  Yes, they were super ripe.  A few had a "bad" berry in it.  But to be honest, I have had the same thing happen at other grocery stores while spending top dollar.

The thing about this store is that you never know what they will have.

This past weekend, peaches and peppers were the stars of the show.  Peaches were .88/lb!  The cheapest I've seen in the sales papers were .99 a lb and they were tiny and rock hard when I got to the store to check them out. 

I quickly grabbed a produce bag and started picking through the peach bin. I got about 6 lbs of peaches.  They smelled amazing but I decided that these weren't to eat fresh.

My very, very, very favorite kind of jelly/preserves/jam is PEACH.  And I wanted to try my hand at making some jelly.  One issue though, if I did the waterbath kind I had nothing to pull my jars out of boiling water with.

I asked around for a recipe and was told to follow the directions in the box of Sure Jell.  There is a chart for different types of fruit and different ways to process it. 

I didn't intend to get the low sugar kind.   But oh well. 

The first thing I did was wash and peel the peaches.  I put the peels down the garbage disposal as I wondered if there was anything I could do with the peels.  (Turns out there is!)

Then I put the peaches through my favorite kitchen gadget (well second to the Keurig!) our Vidalia Onion Chop Wizard.

Then I mixed the Sure Jell, sugar and water like the directions said and stirred, stirred, stirred waiting for the mixture to boil.  It didn't look to appetizing. 

Then I mixed in the fruit and stirred for about a minute.  I ladled it into jars while being mindful of the "fill line" so that there was room for the jelly to expand in the freezer.  (There were multiple warnings about making sure you allowed space.  My jars had a marking for the "fill line.")

I sealed the jars and admired them on the counter.  I had enough peaches for two batches of Sure Jell.  It made 7.5 jars. 

After 24 hours, the jelly had set and we moved one jar to the fridge where it will be good for 3 weeks.  I put the rest in the freezer, where they will be good for a year.  We already gifted a jar to one of Brandon's coworkers. 

This was my first experience actually doing the jelly-making.  I watched my aunt and mom often when I was little girl but I was only an observer.  Next thing to tackle is water bath canning.  Those jars won't take up room in the freezer.  Thumbs up!

~Stephanie