A Very Peachy Day

This past Tuesday, my daughter and I drove to buy peaches at Green Bluff, a lovely area of orchards north of Spokane, Washington. I don't do nearly as much food preservation as I did when I had three children at home to help with the process and eat the results, but this summer I've had the urge to can peaches again. My mother used to can Red Haven peaches, so when @generikat told me of a good place to obtain them, that's where I intended to go, for the sake of nostalgia. However, after emailing the farm in advance, I changed my mind: they only have u-pick peaches. I was not interested in picking peaches myself, for three reasons: 1) too many stinging insects this time of year, especially around fallen peaches, 2) I'm clumsy, and would end up bruising half the peaches, and 3) my 3-year-old granddaughter was coming along, and would have been getting into everything. So much for nostalgia!

So we drove to Walters' Fruit Ranch to see what they had to offer. We found three varieties of peaches suitable for canning. I think the ones I bought were called Sunny Rich; I ought to have written it down! They were ready to can the next day, so I spent the morning canning peaches.

I had spread the peaches out in a single layer in two boxes, so this is about half of the 21 pounds I purchased.

On the left rear burner is the syrup (1 cup sugar to 3 cups water), on the right rear are the lids in hot water, on the right front is the big canner kettle, and on the left front is the boiling water for dipping the peaches.

My sink is a single basin style, so I use a dishpan for the cold water into which the peaches go after they have been dipped in the boiling water. The bucket is for the peelings after I slip them off, and the peach pits.

I have two big bread bowls, so I fill one with cold water in which to drop the peeled whole peaches. The other one is also filled with cold water, and is used for the sliced peaches when I get to that step. I put a tablespoon or so of lemon juice in each bowl to prevent browning of the peaches.

Once the peaches are peeled, pitted, and sliced, I load them into the jars, which have been keeping hot in the canner kettle. I used pint jars this year instead of quarts, since there are fewer of us eating them.

Next, I move the jars over by the stove so I can conveniently ladle in the hot syrup.

After that, I wipe each jar rim with a clean cloth, position a hot lid, and screw on the band. I check one more time for nicks in the jar rim when I wipe it, and this time I found one faulty jar that I had missed! I had to quickly wash another one and get it ready for receiving peaches.

Here they are, all eight jars in the canner kettle, ready to bring to a boil and process for twenty minutes.

I filled the canner kettle twice, so ended up with sixteen pints of peaches.

And then, because it seemed like an excellent idea, I made a fresh peach pie. It was delicious!

All photos taken on my Android phone.