A beautiful peach jam with the tropical flavors of lime and ginger.

Last week, I returned home to find a box of softball-sized white and yellow peaches on my doorstep. Can you imagine how exciting that is? This year, once again, I am serving as a Canbassador for the Washington State Stone Fruit Growers. which means that every so often, I receive one of these fruit care packages. Being a Canbassador is a pretty sweet gig, alright. As sweet as a perfectly ripe peach, in fact.

I was so excited to receive all this beautiful fruit because my cookbook, The Joys of Jewish Preserving, is full of peach recipes — from delicate Peaches in Honey Syrup to a summer-to-fall Peach-Fig Jam. Peaches are one of the fruits mentioned in the Talmud, a collection of writings on Jewish civil and ceremonial law and legend, and they grow abundantly throughout the Jewish diaspora. These days, of course, Washington State is home to some of the finest peaches you will find.

Last year, I made Stone Fruit Ketchup with my bounty from the Washington State Stone Fruit Growers. This year, I wanted to return to making jam with my Washington State peaches. But of course, I couldn’t make a basic peach jam. Instead, I drew inspiration from the tropics and decided to fashion a peach jam with the flavors of lime and ginger.

With both fresh and ground ginger, this jam definitely has some spice to it and the lime adds a refreshing tartness. This may be my new favorite peach jam and I am already planning which lucky friends will receive one of these jars this year for a holiday gift.

A lot of peach recipes, including this one, ask you to peel the peaches. You can do this the old-fashioned way, which is to blanch the peaches in boiling water and then slip the skins off. But that does require an extra step. May I humbly suggest investing in a soft-skin peeler. This little gadget looks like a vegetable peeler with a serrated edge and it peels the skin right off peaches, no blanching necessary. I find it to be worth the $10 price tag and spot in my gadget drawer.

If jam is not your thing, of course, there are so many ways to use peaches, which are at their peak right now. I realized that I have a multitude of peach recipes on this site from a classic peach pie to a grilled peach shortcake to a naked peach cake. Don’t feel like baking? How about a salad with grilled peaches and hazelnuts? (That is a great recipe and one I will have to make again very soon.)

But the only way to keep enjoying peaches long after peach season has ended is to preserve them. If you have never known the joy of opening a jar of peach jam or peach butter in January and feeling transported back to the warmth of August — when you could easily lay your hands on a perfect juicy peach and eat while juice dribbles down your chin — well, then you are certainly missing out on one of the pleasures of life. So, my advice is to take some time this August and make a batch of this Lime Ginger Peach Jam. You can thank me in January.

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Lime Ginger Peach Jam

Yield: Makes 5 half-pint jars

Ingredients

• 4 lbs yellow peaches
• 4 cups sugar
• Zest and juice of three limes
• 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 tsp ground ginger

Instructions

1. If you are planning to process the jars for shelf-stability, fill a canning or stockpot outfitted with a rack with water and bring to a boil and heat five 8-oz jars.
2. Place a saucer in the freezer to chill.
3. Peel the peaches, either by plunging them in boiling water for one minutes and then slipping the skins off or by using a soft-skin peeler. Pit and chop the peaches.
4. Add the peaches, sugar, lime juice and zest, grated ginger and ground ginger to a wide, deep saucepan set over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
5. Once the sugar is dissolved, turn the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring to prevent scorching.
6. Boil the jam, stirring constantly to present scorching, until thickened and the temperature reaches 220.
7. To test for doneness, place a dollop of jam on the chilled saucer and return it to the freezer for one minute. Push the jam on the saucer with your finger. If it wrinkles, it is ready.
8. Fill the warm jars with the jam leaving ¼ inch headspace at the top.
9. Run a thin plastic utensil along the inside of the jars to release any air bubbles. Wipe the rims with a clean damp cloth to remove any residue. Place on lids and rings and tighten.
10. Place jars in boiling water bath and process for ten minutes.
11. Allow jars to cool in water for five minutes before removing to a counter.

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Full disclosure time: In exchange for acting as a Canbassador for the Washington State Stone Fruit Growers, I received a shipment of mixed stone fruit free of charge. I have not been compensated for this post. All opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.