Favor for a Friend

My dad had a peach tree (he and mom moved to a new place last year, hence the past tense) that produced so many huge, juicy, ripe fruit one year, I carried home literally bags and bags of them. Ate as many as I could, and then turned the rest into peach butter. I gave quarts of it away.
Oddly, the damn tree never bloomed again. Lucky I was there, is all I can say.
Should life give you too many peaches (or is "too many peaches" an oxymoron?), try this, from Emily Luchetti's 1991 Stars Desserts:

PEACH BUTTER

5 pounds peaches (about 12 large)
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Halve and pit the peaches. Puree them through a food mill. There should be about 2 quarts of peach puree. Place the puree in a heavy-bottomed nonaluminum pot and stir in the sugar.
Bake the puree for 2-1/2 hours, stirring every half-hour. Transfer the peach butter to a smaller clean pot. (As it reduces the edges of the pot get very dark.) Continue baking for another 2 to 2-1/2 hours, until the peach puree is reduced to about 4 cups.
Let the butter cool and serve on toast and muffins. This keeps indefinitely in the refrigerator.

I know. I still have some!