In the fall I turn into a squirrel. As the harvest season comes into full swing, I feel an intense need to prepare our family for winter. I like to inventory my food storage, reorganize the freezer, and of course restock the pantry and cold room. We try to eat pretty cheap in September and October so I can spend the bulk of my food budget on storage and getting ready for winter.
September always means fresh Utah peaches and today when I got up, that is all I could think about…PEACHES!!
My memories of canning peaches go all the way back to my childhood. We would go for a vacation to one of the lakes in the interior of B.C. Canada in the summertime and always bring back boxes and boxes of peaches. Then when they were ready we would help my Mom bottle them and make peach fruit leather with our big dehydrator. My favorite job was slipping skins. I loved how the skins just magically slid off into the cool water leaving you with a big smooth slippery peach. As I got older Mom let me pack the bottles and add the Fruit Fresh and sugar to the jars. Mom taught me a great way to can peaches that she learned from her mother. I don't know anyone else who does it this way, but THEY SHOULD!!! It is so quick and easy. Most canning books I've read have you make a hot syrup and add it to your filled jars. Mom taught me to fill my jars, then add the sugar, then fill the jar to the top with nice hot water. The syrup basically "makes itself" while you give the jars their boiling water bath. It's one less cooking step, less time at the stove, and less pots to wash. THANKS MOM!! Jerry and I have canned peaches since the very first year of our marriage. We bought our first jars second hand at Deseret Industries. Since then, we have been given many more jars (often by older ladies who don't really have a need for them anymore) Florence Brunetti, across the street from us gave us boxes and boxes of quart jars one year. She has passed away now but every time I can, I think of her, and the day when we were over visiting her and she gave us those jars. (She also gave the children some amazing rock specimens that are now in Olivia and Emily's "museum".)
We almost always have gone to Brigham City's "Famous Fruit Way" to get our peaches. It has become a looked forward to event each September. We pile everyone in the car and drive to our favorite fruit stand. For years it was "Christiansons" until they closed. Now we go to "Pettingills." They are always ready with a knife to give everyone a sample of their tasty peaches. One time we even got a short tour of the orchard behind Christiansons. We buy bushels and bushels of peaches, as many as our budget can handle.
Today was the day. I piled five kids in the van with me and we headed towards Brigham City. We didn't arrive until almost noon and were lucky to have arrived when we did. Almost all the peaches brought in that morning were already sold. We bought 5 bushels and after that there was only one basket left. We also picked up a box of Honeycrisp apples and some pears. Nathan, our budding gardener, loved seeing all the produce for sale, including the watermelon sized honeydew melons. There were samples of cantaloupe and watermelon for the little girls to enjoy and Sophia ended up very sticky, but very happy. Nathan was thrilled to tell me that his cantaloupe that he grew in our garden this year tasted even sweeter than the ones there at the fruit stand.
Once we get the peaches home, Peach Fest begins in our home. Everyone is glad to have as many yummy sweet juicy peaches as he can eat. We rarely even buy peaches from the store anymore because they taste so bland and like cardboard compared to the wonderful local peaches in September. We eat and eat and eat and eat. And then we can and can and can and can, and then we dry and dry and freeze and freeze.
Jerry has always helped can. When our children were very small, we would only can in the evenings after they were in bed. We often were up very late, with Jerry offering to stay up until that last canner load came out…sometimes as late as 1am. I can remember more than once we fell asleep and didn't hear the timer dinging to tell us that it was time to take the jars out of the water bath. We've had a few seriously overprocessed batches due to that. As soon as the children are able, they start helping with the canning. I've known that the children all look forward to canning, but I did not realize how much. Brandon, while on his mission in Uganda, commented in an email that he missed being there for canning season. He expressed to me how much he enjoyed it and how he appreciated being taught to work, and work hard. Canning is hard work, but seeing all those golden jars of peaches on the table when we are finished makes it all worth it. And opening those "jars of sunshine" in the middle of winter is so yummy. Children start out by just slipping the skins after an older brother or Mom or Dad blanches them (just 30 seconds in boiling water). When they are able I let them help fill the jars, and measure the sugar and the ascorbic acid into the jars. I typically do the slicing and fill the jars with hot water. Then all we have to do is put on the seals and process the jars in a boiling water bath for 40 minutes. Jerry often is the last one up on canning night. He pulls out that last batch of jars and lets me get to bed.
We also like to freeze peaches to make fruit smoothies and green smoothies all year long. This is a fairly simple process that we do during the day. The younger children can do this with me very easily. The children wash the peaches, we slice and pit them, then we put them into Ziploc bags and freeze them. We don't even skin them. Our blender is a Vitamix, which grinds the skins so well that is it not necessary.
Dehydrated peaches are a huge treat for our family. We always run out of these before the next peach season. It seems I never dry enough. We do blanch these and slip the skins. Then I slice them into wedges and the children put them on the trays. We do not even treat them at all. I dry them at a fairly high temperature for the first few hours then turn it down. We find that the color stays quite nice and bright. In the next week or so we will also dehydrate some pears. A friend here in town had two trees that were absolutely loaded. We took the kids over the other night to pick pears off of her tree. They had a ball climbing the ladder and even Sophia had a job of picking up the bad pears off the ground to put in a bucket to give to the cows belonging to the trees' owner. To dry pears I simply blanch them just like the peaches and the skins come off fairly easily. I wedge them up and dry them just like the peaches, with no pretreating. You can dry them with the skins on but the skins are quite tough and grainy when dry. We love dried pears, even more than the peaches.
Tonight we did four canner loads. I think we'll probably do another eight tomorrow. That will give us eighty-four quarts of peaches. Not bad for a weekends' work. Thank you Jerry and all my children for being such willing helpers. You will all be so grateful you put in the effort, when we are eating delicious peaches while the snow is falling outside this winter.
September always means fresh Utah peaches and today when I got up, that is all I could think about…PEACHES!!
My memories of canning peaches go all the way back to my childhood. We would go for a vacation to one of the lakes in the interior of B.C. Canada in the summertime and always bring back boxes and boxes of peaches. Then when they were ready we would help my Mom bottle them and make peach fruit leather with our big dehydrator. My favorite job was slipping skins. I loved how the skins just magically slid off into the cool water leaving you with a big smooth slippery peach. As I got older Mom let me pack the bottles and add the Fruit Fresh and sugar to the jars. Mom taught me a great way to can peaches that she learned from her mother. I don't know anyone else who does it this way, but THEY SHOULD!!! It is so quick and easy. Most canning books I've read have you make a hot syrup and add it to your filled jars. Mom taught me to fill my jars, then add the sugar, then fill the jar to the top with nice hot water. The syrup basically "makes itself" while you give the jars their boiling water bath. It's one less cooking step, less time at the stove, and less pots to wash. THANKS MOM!! Jerry and I have canned peaches since the very first year of our marriage. We bought our first jars second hand at Deseret Industries. Since then, we have been given many more jars (often by older ladies who don't really have a need for them anymore) Florence Brunetti, across the street from us gave us boxes and boxes of quart jars one year. She has passed away now but every time I can, I think of her, and the day when we were over visiting her and she gave us those jars. (She also gave the children some amazing rock specimens that are now in Olivia and Emily's "museum".)
We almost always have gone to Brigham City's "Famous Fruit Way" to get our peaches. It has become a looked forward to event each September. We pile everyone in the car and drive to our favorite fruit stand. For years it was "Christiansons" until they closed. Now we go to "Pettingills." They are always ready with a knife to give everyone a sample of their tasty peaches. One time we even got a short tour of the orchard behind Christiansons. We buy bushels and bushels of peaches, as many as our budget can handle.
Today was the day. I piled five kids in the van with me and we headed towards Brigham City. We didn't arrive until almost noon and were lucky to have arrived when we did. Almost all the peaches brought in that morning were already sold. We bought 5 bushels and after that there was only one basket left. We also picked up a box of Honeycrisp apples and some pears. Nathan, our budding gardener, loved seeing all the produce for sale, including the watermelon sized honeydew melons. There were samples of cantaloupe and watermelon for the little girls to enjoy and Sophia ended up very sticky, but very happy. Nathan was thrilled to tell me that his cantaloupe that he grew in our garden this year tasted even sweeter than the ones there at the fruit stand.
Once we get the peaches home, Peach Fest begins in our home. Everyone is glad to have as many yummy sweet juicy peaches as he can eat. We rarely even buy peaches from the store anymore because they taste so bland and like cardboard compared to the wonderful local peaches in September. We eat and eat and eat and eat. And then we can and can and can and can, and then we dry and dry and freeze and freeze.
Jerry has always helped can. When our children were very small, we would only can in the evenings after they were in bed. We often were up very late, with Jerry offering to stay up until that last canner load came out…sometimes as late as 1am. I can remember more than once we fell asleep and didn't hear the timer dinging to tell us that it was time to take the jars out of the water bath. We've had a few seriously overprocessed batches due to that. As soon as the children are able, they start helping with the canning. I've known that the children all look forward to canning, but I did not realize how much. Brandon, while on his mission in Uganda, commented in an email that he missed being there for canning season. He expressed to me how much he enjoyed it and how he appreciated being taught to work, and work hard. Canning is hard work, but seeing all those golden jars of peaches on the table when we are finished makes it all worth it. And opening those "jars of sunshine" in the middle of winter is so yummy. Children start out by just slipping the skins after an older brother or Mom or Dad blanches them (just 30 seconds in boiling water). When they are able I let them help fill the jars, and measure the sugar and the ascorbic acid into the jars. I typically do the slicing and fill the jars with hot water. Then all we have to do is put on the seals and process the jars in a boiling water bath for 40 minutes. Jerry often is the last one up on canning night. He pulls out that last batch of jars and lets me get to bed.
We also like to freeze peaches to make fruit smoothies and green smoothies all year long. This is a fairly simple process that we do during the day. The younger children can do this with me very easily. The children wash the peaches, we slice and pit them, then we put them into Ziploc bags and freeze them. We don't even skin them. Our blender is a Vitamix, which grinds the skins so well that is it not necessary.
Dehydrated peaches are a huge treat for our family. We always run out of these before the next peach season. It seems I never dry enough. We do blanch these and slip the skins. Then I slice them into wedges and the children put them on the trays. We do not even treat them at all. I dry them at a fairly high temperature for the first few hours then turn it down. We find that the color stays quite nice and bright. In the next week or so we will also dehydrate some pears. A friend here in town had two trees that were absolutely loaded. We took the kids over the other night to pick pears off of her tree. They had a ball climbing the ladder and even Sophia had a job of picking up the bad pears off the ground to put in a bucket to give to the cows belonging to the trees' owner. To dry pears I simply blanch them just like the peaches and the skins come off fairly easily. I wedge them up and dry them just like the peaches, with no pretreating. You can dry them with the skins on but the skins are quite tough and grainy when dry. We love dried pears, even more than the peaches.
Tonight we did four canner loads. I think we'll probably do another eight tomorrow. That will give us eighty-four quarts of peaches. Not bad for a weekends' work. Thank you Jerry and all my children for being such willing helpers. You will all be so grateful you put in the effort, when we are eating delicious peaches while the snow is falling outside this winter.
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