The peaches are ripe. Wow. I should have thinned out my peaches early in the season, but I’m such a novice at this, that I really don’t even know when to do that. I’ll find out for next year. These are the peaches that we picked up off the ground. We haven’t even started picking off the trees yet.
So, on Saturday, after Cole had taking the ACT (go, Cole!) and John had played a soccer game (go, John!) and we had all had lunch (hooray for lunch!) I decided we had to get serious and do something with these peaches. I have canned peaches before, but never on my own. I had my mom help me one year. Last year, I didn’t can peaches at all, I just froze a bunch for smoothies and we ate a bunch. I also gave a LOT away. But I don’t have the excuse to be out of town this year (last year I went to Georgia with Ryan right when the peaches ripened).
So, I started the blanching and the cutting and realized that the kids HAD to help, or I would be buried in peaches for EVER! And Jenna’s hands are just the right size to stick them into the bottles and arrange the peaches. Who knew?
Megan was the blancher, Natalie the peeler, cutter, and Jenna put them into the bottles. I did the syrup, the lidding, the washing, and got everything ready for processing.
Oh, was it HOT.
What with the boiling water for the blanching, the boiling water for the syrup, boiling the water for the lids, and the canner, I didn’t have enough burners on my stove!
And I’m sure you can’t tell from the pictures how STICKY everyone is, but suffice it to say we were completely covered in sticky. I felt wasteful throwing away all the bruised and yucky parts of the peaches. I could have made Jam from them! But we gave a LOT of peach peels to the chickens and threw a lot of peach guts away because we just had to focus on the bottling.
By the end of the day we had 20 quarts of peaches canned.
Aren’t they beautiful?
I was also so tired that I took the kids out to dinner rather than fix something for dinner. So, 20 quarts are done, and I have many many more peaches on the tree. I’ve got to get more aggressive in my advertising of free peaches, and I’ve got to get busy and can some more.
Bring on the sticky…
Sounds fabulous Paige! Peaches are a lot of work. I love the idea of freezing them for smoothies. I’m going to try that this year. Peaches need to be thinned in June, after the “June drop,” when the tree drops off the ones it doesn’t want. Thin the remaining green peaches so they’re about 3″ apart. Then you’ll get bigger peaches and a more manageable number. And I’ve learned to not bother with composting the pits. They don’t compost…at least in a year. Had to pick them out of my compost I added to my planting boxes. Bet your chickens loved the peach skins!
I wish I was in the valley. I’d come take a few off your hands. What is it about canning that makes you feel so accomplished and pioneer-y? Isn’t it AWESOME! Good job. I’m jealous.
I’m just glad I didn’t miss the whole fresh peach season this year. Last year, I was in Korea / Atlanta and missed the whole thing!
I did 14 more quarts today. I am getting tired of peaches! I also had two of my neighbors come over and pick quite a few. So hopefully we can wait a few days while the rest ripen.
Your peaches are gorgeous! 34 bottles–that’s a lot of work. I did 7 bottles once, and it nearly killed me. Do you have any more you need to get rid of? I froze most of the ones you gave us and have been eating the rest on cereal and pancakes, but they’re almost gone.