This weekend we took a trip to our local orchard to do some peach and veggie picking. I had been itching to make some jellies and wanted to get out of the house and into some nature so we took a drive to Styer Orchards in Langhorne. We had been there once before and after our last several trips to Linvilla Orchards had been a bust (ignorant crowds, people stealing food, and high prices) I vowed to not waste my time or gas on the trip. Don't get me wrong, Livilla is cute, but it is more of a "tourist attraction" than anything and I kid you not, their fields are full of people who will literally camp out with their families and devour a hundred dollars work of fruit and vegetables out of the view of the workers and wander out purchasing maybe $8 work of anything to cover up their theft! As a result the honest-paying customers are not paying MORE than grocery store price. Plus, we also learned that they use high amounts of pesticides on all of their crops so that what actually makes it to the register is not inflicted with diseases. So, unless there is a good reason to drive there, I will not be paying $3.99 a lb for non-organic peaches that I have to hike out and pick for myself. No sir!
Now Styer's: I have to say, I absolutely love this little place. It is family run, super friendly, and just a plain old-style pick your own orchard. No fuss. No mess. Just rows and rows of fruits. There is also a cute country store at the beginning of the property that used to be part of the farm but is now managed by the township. We stopped in to grab some apple cider and a cup of locally-made ice cream from Goodnoe Farms. What a better way to perk up a cranky toddler than with chocolate ice cream, right?
We ended up with about 30lbs (easily) of fresh peaches, peppers, and tomatoes along with a few potted herbs for only $30! That's it! Needless to say I spent a good portion of yesterday cleaning and peeling peaches.
In all, about 20lbs of peaches were processed last night into yummy jams. My favorite has to be what I call my "local special" because it utilizes the two most abundant fruits in my region right now - blueberries (from Jersey) and peaches (fro Pennsylvania)! The recipe is super easy as it only has a few ingredients and takes very little time to cook up. I made twelve 8oz jars in no time! And, best off, the jelly set perfectly (unlike some other jams I have made in the past)!
I also made lots of plain peach jam (to my dismay had to be recooked due to, what I think, was either too little or bad pectin!) and some peach & strawberry jam. I love mixing berries into any of my jams and jellies. They are full of those healthy goodies, which, when you are consuming that amount of sugar in one tablespoon is something I need to remind myself of. Also, they just simply taste great. Below you can see the recipe I use for the peachy blueberry jam. Try it out for yourself!
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