Monday I took the kids to a local u-pick farm and we picked 41 pounds of Red Haven peaches. They were the most beautiful tree ripened peaches I have ever seen, and they tasted SO good. One of my goals this year was to can more foods than we did last year. Not too hard to do, since all I did last year was strawberry jam! I am new to canning, and this was my first experience canning peaches. I think it went well, with a few learning curves. I didn't pack the peaches enough on my first six jars, and using organic sugar made the water seem more brown. So the next batch I really packed them in there, and used regular white sugar, and the peaches did turn out looking nicer. I still have about an inch of liquid at the bottom of the jar - I used the raw pack method and have read that "fruit float" is pretty common. The other method is hot pack, where you cook the fruit briefly before canning - I am going to try some jars that way next time and see which texture we like better as there is supposed to be a difference.
I am happy with how it went, although its a LOT more work than I thought it would be. I am also realizing that if I planned on feeding my family canned fruit for a whole year...I would need to do a LOT. Like, way more than I thought I would. 41 pounds of peaches turned into only 9 quarts and two pints...although we did eat quite a few and used a bunch to make a peach crisp to share with our neighbors. Still - what I canned would only last us 2.5 months and that's if we only ate peaches 4 times a month! I don't know how people can afford to feed whole families on home canned foods for a whole year. There must be some secret that I am not in on!
So next week we are going back for Veteran peaches, which I have heard are a favorite canning peach because they peel without scalding and pit really easily. Something the Red Havens surely didn't do! I am going to try to pick twice the amount that I did this time, and can them in a hurry before they all get eaten up!
My first attempt at making canned peaches - the 6 jars on the right were the first ones I did:
I am happy with how it went, although its a LOT more work than I thought it would be. I am also realizing that if I planned on feeding my family canned fruit for a whole year...I would need to do a LOT. Like, way more than I thought I would. 41 pounds of peaches turned into only 9 quarts and two pints...although we did eat quite a few and used a bunch to make a peach crisp to share with our neighbors. Still - what I canned would only last us 2.5 months and that's if we only ate peaches 4 times a month! I don't know how people can afford to feed whole families on home canned foods for a whole year. There must be some secret that I am not in on!
So next week we are going back for Veteran peaches, which I have heard are a favorite canning peach because they peel without scalding and pit really easily. Something the Red Havens surely didn't do! I am going to try to pick twice the amount that I did this time, and can them in a hurry before they all get eaten up!
My first attempt at making canned peaches - the 6 jars on the right were the first ones I did:
