Yummy Peaches!

Every year we go to Danville Farms for peaches (It's also where we cut our Christmas tree each year). It is a really neat place, and we've gone there each year since Levi was 2. They have acres and acres of some of the finest peaches you can imagine. They start ripening during the first week of June, and continue until the first week of August. They raise many different varieties, both freestones and cling. I try to can at least 100 pounds of these luscious beauties each summer so that we can enjoy them all year long.

This year, we had some nasty storms move through and there are not as many peaches as usual, so we'll be limited on the amount we put up. Yesterday we canned the first 30 pounds of the summer. I usually do quart jars, however since our boys are no longer at home, I was concerned that there would be some wasted by doing them in such large jars. This year I opted to do pints for the halves, and half pints for the slices and chunks.

We move them from the box to the kitchen in the collander so that I don't have to lift the heavy boxes. Aren't they pretty? And these were some of the "soft" ones!

We keep a big pot of boiling water on the stove; the pot needs to be large enough to put 4-5 peaches in at a time, without cooling the water too much. They stay in their boiling water bath for about a minute.

Next they go into a large bowl of ice water to cool quickly.

No this isn't some sort of torture, by doing this the skins slip right off the peaches without much effort....and no waste.

Once skinned, I cut the peach in half, slices, or chunks; depending on whether the peaches are bruised or blemished. The halves are kept in a holding pattern in a pot of syrup. I make the syrup using 1 part sugar to 2 parts water, then crush & add 1000 mg Vitamin C (prevents browning).

I sterilize the jars by running them through the diswasher. They stay there until right before filling, that way they stay clean and hot.

This is also when I start the fire under the canner. I do most of my canning outside during the summer so that I don't get the house too hot. We use our turkey fryer for all our water bath canning, and for venting the pressure canner. It gets too hot to do the entire pressure canning process, but it is ideal for this type of canning.

I use tongs to fill each jar. The peach halves are laid in the jar pit side down and stacked to within 1 inch of the top of the jar. This is tedious, but it makes for a beautiful finished product.

Once filled, I ladle in enough of the holding syrup to fill the jar to 1/2" from the top. Then we wipe the top of the jar with a damp paper towel and top them with the lids and rings.

Next they go outside and into the canner.
They are kept at a slow, steady boil for 25 minutes.

Once the time is up, we move them to a cooling rack. I got this handy dandy baker's rack at a garage sale and it works great for canning. It also folds up and stores out of the way when I'm not using it. They are left here overnight to cool.Today is the last step of the process. The jars of peaches are brought into the kitchen, we remove the rings, and check the seals before washing them. Here are some shots of the finished jars. We ended up with 36 finished jars for this batch, not bad for a morning's work!