This past Thursday there was a big one-day-only farmer's market at the State Capitol. All Michigan vendors, all Michigan-grown produce, and all growers (no dealers!!). It was a great market. I actually was able to still find peaches there! I was so excited. They're Harmony peaches and they were huge! I bought one and a half pecks and canned most of them this evening. There were five of them that were still not quite ripe enough yet that I'm hoping to use to do up some baby food for Carson. Reading the instructions on canning peaches didn't seem like so much work, but it took much longer than I expected it to. And the peeling process was driving me nuts... for some reason, I was having a difficult time getting the peaches to peel after dipping them in boiling water. So I resorted to the old-fashioned method of cutting the peels off. Then I hot-packed the peaches, but they still floated up and have left a lot of room in the bottoms of the jars after processing. That bothers me, but there's nothing I can do about it now. Anyway, I think I decided that I probably won't do any canning with peaches for a long time... probably not until I have my own peach tree(s), thus making it more economical. With the price of peaches plus all the labor and frustration, it just wasn't worth it to me. I sure hope they taste good now! :)
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Canned Peaches
This past Thursday there was a big one-day-only farmer's market at the State Capitol. All Michigan vendors, all Michigan-grown produce, and all growers (no dealers!!). It was a great market. I actually was able to still find peaches there! I was so excited. They're Harmony peaches and they were huge! I bought one and a half pecks and canned most of them this evening. There were five of them that were still not quite ripe enough yet that I'm hoping to use to do up some baby food for Carson. Reading the instructions on canning peaches didn't seem like so much work, but it took much longer than I expected it to. And the peeling process was driving me nuts... for some reason, I was having a difficult time getting the peaches to peel after dipping them in boiling water. So I resorted to the old-fashioned method of cutting the peels off. Then I hot-packed the peaches, but they still floated up and have left a lot of room in the bottoms of the jars after processing. That bothers me, but there's nothing I can do about it now. Anyway, I think I decided that I probably won't do any canning with peaches for a long time... probably not until I have my own peach tree(s), thus making it more economical. With the price of peaches plus all the labor and frustration, it just wasn't worth it to me. I sure hope they taste good now! :)
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3 comments:
Nice job on the peaches! The amount of work is why I was hesitant to try them. I know it's a pain just to peel enough peaches to bake a cobbler or something. But I do like the idea of having my own instead of buying a can at the store. Maybe I'll give it a try next year. I hope you enjoy your peaches. How many jars did you end up with?
I only ended up with five pints, which is another bummer with all that work. But I guess I had to try it at least once. I still would like to plant a dwarf peach tree or two in the next few years, so if that ever happens, then I'll be canning them then I guess, but I don't think I'll do them again until we have our own.
Peeling peaches, ugh!
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