Crockpot Butter Bliss

The leeks are growing, the days are lengthening, chicks are in the incubator and new kits are in the nest box.

Spring is coming right along, all things considered.  Oh, I know we're going to get more snow--March is always a snowy month--but with the longer daylight in the evenings and temperatures above zero, I can feel my spirits lift and my mind is full of spring.

Part of my spring preparations includes clearing one of the freezers on the porch.  The fruit & veg freezer is suffering rather badly from frost build up, which is making it very difficult to pull out the tubs with their treasure of frozen delights.  Its time to defrost the freezer.  Ugh.  Now that is one chore I dislike, but it must be done.  Right now, its too cold on the porch to defrost anything so I'm working on clearing out some of the fruit surplus.  This past weekend, I dug out two gallon bags of peach slices and popped them into the crock pot.  After a little defrost-cooking time on low,  I added the ingredients to make a batch of Honey-Cardamom Peach Butter.  The beautiful thing about making fruit butters in the crockpot is that you can leave them on very low (my crockpot has a "keep warm" setting) with the lid propped open with a wooden spoon, and in the morning you have a thick, rich puree ready for canning or for saving in the freezer.  My two gallon bags cooked down into two and a half pints of thick, rich peach butter--perfect over yogurt for breakfast.  I'm also planning to make an Italian Jam Crostata this week, for a simple and delicious dessert.

Now, what to do with some of those blueberries pining away in there...