This year in my garden, I've planted a variety of tomatoes.  I have Beef Steak, (good for slicing on sandwiches!), San Marzanos, (really good for sauces and tomato pastes), and Ox Hearts, (heart shaped tomatoes that are good for both of the above!)  I have a couple other varieties that I'm not sure what they are called!  Sometimes they produce very strange shapes of tomatoes!  But they all taste good and when you have tomatoes coming out of your ears, I will use every kind available to make tomato sauces of different varieties.  
      Peeling tomatoes is not what I love to do though, so when someone sent me a clever idea on TikTok that eliminated peeling and hours of simmering over a hot stove, I was ready to give it a try!  

     In my last post, I shared some ways that I've been using Moringa in my morning smoothies  and juice.   Since then, I've been experimenting with it in other ways because a.) It is very prolific so there is a lot of Moringa to use!  b.) ​It is so healthy and I love the boost that I feel when I'm using it consistently! 

      About a week ago, I also had some apricots and peaches that I needed to finish processing.  I thought about the Apricot Peach Butter that I made in the crock pot last year and decided that a new batch was in order, is has such a delicious blend of vanilla and cinnamon in it and everyone loved the flavor.  But, then I looked at my dried moringa leaves and of course, a lightbulb went off that I should incorporate moringa into a new version of this delicious fruit butter!  So, of course, I did it!  I am so glad that I did because it is my new favorite form of this butter! 

     I decided that this time instead of the warm cinnamon with vanilla tones that I had in the original recipe, I would go for a brighter flavor where hopefully the moringa could shine through a bit.  I used dried moringa leaves because I wanted to use the steam or water bath canner to can this and I didn't want a fresh herb messing with the acidity of the recipe.  Be sure to crush the Moringa Leaves when you put them in.  
​
      Also, my fruit was pretty small.  In the recipe I give an approximate amount of fruit that I used, but mainly be sure to fill your crock pot about 3/4 of the way full. The beauty of this Peach Apricot Butter is that there is no peeling involved!  The immersion blender makes short work of the peels.  If you don't have an immersion blender, you need one!  Or, you can use a blender or food processor.  I just like to be able to blend everything up right in the crock pot, fewer dishes! 

You can adjust the sweetness of the butter up or down according to your taste.  I didn't use pectin, so the amount of sugar won't affect how the butter sets.  I thought about using honey, but I didn't want the honey to overpower the rest of the flavors of the fruits and the moringa. 
     
​     The thicker that you want your butter to be, the longer you will allow it to cook in the crock pot.  I had mine in the crock pot all day.  Then I covered it and put it in the fridge.  In the morning I warmed it back up again for awhile and blended it once more before I put it into the jam jars and canned it.  I canned mine in small jam jars, if you are going to put it in larger jars, be sure adjust the processing time to be longer. 

     What I love about this fruit butter is the bright flavor that is such a surprise to your tastebuds when you put in in your mouth!  I'm so happy that I had the bright idea to try this! I hope you will give it a try if you have some peaches and apricots coming on your trees. 

     Over the last couple of weeks, Anita has gifted me peaches from a friend's tree and apricots from her own tree.  It has been amazing to process these fruits and add them to my pantry.  In the midst of it all, I realized that I haven't ever shown you how easy it is to can apricots!  They are absolutely one of my favorite fruits to can because of the ease of the process and because a jar of freshly opened apricots tastes amazing!  Almost as good as the fresh fruit!  So, here is my basic tutorial! 

     Ever since I discovered mulberries a few years ago, I have been enamored with them.  (By discovered, I mean tasting my first mulberry ever from my son's tree!)  They are just about the most delicious berry ever in my opinion and since they have a short season, I watch for them in the Spring now to make sure that I don't miss out on them.  So, when Anita messaged me that she saw someone on Facebook inviting people to come and pick from their tree for free, (my favorite price), I was over to that place in about 5 minutes!  You're welcome, because now you get to try this amazing Straw Mulberry Jam for yourselves!