Homemade Peach Jam

My husband and three year old love peaches!  I believe they would both eat peach cobbler daily if it was in the house.  I have lived in Colorado for four years now and have most recently discovered Palisade peaches.  My three year old calls the peaches "tasty." I would agree with my bright young boy.  They are extremely tasty.  This is my second year of buying a couple of boxes, one box to eat, one to freeze.  However, we purchased three boxes this year.  One to eat, one to freeze, and I thought I would make jam with the third box.  Below is the jam directions I used which can be found in the box of most fruit pectin.

Basic Ingredients:  jars, lids, rings, sugar, pectin, fruit fresh (in following pictures) and peaches.

Magnetic lid lifter, jar lifter, tongs, and canning funnel.  I sanitize all canning supplies and then place them on a sanitized rack so they are ready to use.

Of course you can blanch your peaches, which is what I do when I freeze them.   Today, I was watching my seven month old and three year old by myself, so I just peeled them for the sake of time using a good paring knife.

Trash bowl comes in handy.

Peeled peaches. 

Next, I dice the peaches.  My husband likes peach pieces in his jam, so I didn't dice them too small.  Feel free to dice them smaller.  It's a personal preference.  For this recipe, you will need about 5 cups of diced peaches. 

Once they are diced, I put them in a bowl and sprinkle fruit fresh and mix to get all peaches covered.  

Next, mash up your peaches in small batches according to how  you want them.   

Place mashed peaches into a sauce pan and stir in fruit pectin.  You can use low sugar fruit pectin, but I used the premium fruit pectin.  One of my favorite memories was eating my grandma's homemade jelly as a child.  I'm pretty sure she did not use the low sugar version.  Bring mixture to a full rolling boil.

Next stir in 5 1/2 cups of sugar.  Return to a boil for one minute.

Pour hot fruit into jars using a funnel for best results.

I keep my lids in warm water until ready for use.

Place lids and rings tightly onto jars.

Place prepared jars into a pot of water that covers the jars.  Bring to a boil.  I processed mine for 20 minutes because of the high altitude in which I live.  However, regular time should be around 10 minutes.

After 10-20 minutes, remove jars using a jar lifter.  

Place jars in an area to cool for approximately 24 hours.  Make sure you check the lid has sealed by pressing the center of the lid.  If the lid springs back, then it did not seal properly.

After at least 24 hours, enjoy some yummy peach jam on homemade dinner rolls or whatever you choose.