Peaches!!!!!

[housewolf]

My neighbor lady just sent me to heaven with the delivery of 30 almost-tree ripe peaches from Utah. About 2 - 13 lbs of gorgeous, beautiful peaches. I'm in heaven just by virtue of their scent and they'll be eating-ready probably tomorrow.c

Wow, how lucky can one be?????

The thing is... I live by myself and have no family here. So my question you, my dear DU Cooking and Baking Group is... what should I do with them????

I can bake a pie or two. What else??? I've never canned anything on my own before, just helped my mother and grandmother out a few times. What else??? Are they freeze-able? If so, how do you do it?

I'm hoping you cooks and bakers will have some suggestions!

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

1. Lucky you!

I'm not a canner so I can't give you any recipes, but I can give you a kick.

:hi:

[eleny]

2. A neighbor used to do this with fruit for pies

She'd mix up a big batch of fruit filling for pies. Then she'd line a few pie tins with foil and ladle in the filling. Cover them with more foil and freeze. When the fruit filling would freeze, she'd reuse the same tins to keep freezing the fruit filling. Then she would stack the fillings in the shape of the pie pans in the freezer for later use.

You probably don't need so many pies but I always thought it was a good idea for making pies ahead of time.

I used to can peaches in a water bath canner. Load up the jars with peach slices, add water and a little bit of orange juice and boil the jars according to the instructions for our altitude. Yummy.

[housewolf]

8. Freezing Peach Pie Filling

Thanks for the reminder of the frozen peach pie filling, Eleny! I have those instructions too, got them from an aunt years and years ago - I'll dig them out and make up a couple with some of the peaches. Sounds great!

[babylonsister]

3. How about some jam? I don't know how to make it, but

I'll bet google does.

[housewolf]

9. Peach Melba Jam

One year I bought a small jar of Peach Melba Jam at a Christmas Botique. I loved it so much that I hunted down a recipe and bought a cookbook with a recipe and talked my mom into showing me how to can up some preserves. It was great! Maybe I'll get brave and do some on my own. I don't think I have the cookbook any more but I've found some recipes on the internet. Thanks!

[Dora]

4. jam, jelly, or preserves

If my mother can do it, so can you. If you're unsure about hot-water canning, then make freezer jam.

[housewolf]

10. Canning - I think I can, I think I can....

I'll need to find a rack to fit in the bottom of a pan and buy some jars and lids. Do you still need a layer of parafin to seal the top or are the lids secure enough without it??

[eleny]

17. The lids sold today should be enough

They seal very well. I remember the wax topping! Mom would make grape jam from her Concord vine grapes and use the wax.

[grasswire]

23. I still use parafin

Just tradition. I just like to do it.

[eleny]

24. It's nostalgic and it works!

I often like doing things the way my mom and grands did.

[SoCalDem]

5. Cobbler :)

hands down...

here's a pic of my family's favorite dessert

[housewolf]

11. Ohhhh... that's gorgeous!

Yum! Wish I had some right now!

[SoCalDem]

13. We love it because it's not "sweety-sweet" and the peaches

are not peeled..and it's super easy.. as soon as I find the recipe, I'll post it for you..

[eleny]

18. Beautiful

Do you leave some of the skins on the peaches?

[SoCalDem]

19. I leave ALL the skins on the peaches

I wash them, but do not peel them ..I am a lazy person :)

[eleny]

21. I think it gives more flavor with the skins

Anyone who makes cobblers is not lazy!

I've had peaches on my mind with this thread. So I went to my favorite country style market today since they've had great peaches all summer. Now the Colorado peaches are coming in. We'll eat these plain before I get to make a cobbler. I'm going to go back every few days. They close for the year with the first frost. I'm glad I've gone up there every week this summer but I'm getting spoiled. The tomatoes have been great since they're practically vine ripened, locally grown.

[Warpy]

6. They certainly can be frozen

What you need to do is make a light sugar syrup (about a cup per quart) or you can even use grape juice if you're averse to using sugar. A light syrup would be about a 3:1 mixture of water to sugar. You can use more sugar to taste. White grape juice can be used plain. Do the syrup over heat to dissolve the sugar. Let it cool before packing the peaches.

Next, peel those peaches, remove the pits, and cut them into the size you'd like to find in the freezer in, say, February. Put them into freezer bags, add syrup or juice to cover, expel as much air as possible, and freeze.

You can add a little lemon juice to prevent darkening, but unless you're doing a huge batch, it's not necessary. You could also use one of those fruit anti oxidants (mostly Vitamin C) that I'm so allergic to I've completely forgotten the name of.

The syrup in the bags is what prevents the peaches from drying, getting freezer burn, and turning dark over time.

[housewolf]

12. That sounds easy enough...

I can definitely do that! Thanks, that sounds pretty easy. Hmmmm... I bought a food saver a few months back, I'll have to check and see how it might help me out too.

Thanks for the idea!

[TygrBright]

16. VERY helpful tip, thanks Warpy!!

With the Colorado peaches in at the co-op I've been happy as a pig in you-know-what, but anticipating a terrible emptiness when they're gone. Maybe I'll do up a few bags to make a nice midwinter surprise for myself!

appreciatively,
Bright

[Dora]

22. "Those fruit antioxidants"

Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is an excellent and inexpensive antioxidant to prevent the browning of fruits and vegetables.

I put a spoonful in a sinkful of cold water, swish it around to dissolve, add your sliced/cut fruit, then lift the fruit out (let it drain a little bit if you want) and use. I used to rinse my romaine leaves in this, and it would keep for a month wrapped in a towel in the fridge.

[eleny]

25. Excellent tip for lettuce

Last time I washed lettuce in the fruit wash that's made with grapefruit and rolled it in a towel, it lasted until we were finished with it. How nice not to find brown, mushy lettuce in the fridge.

[politicat]

7. They freeze fine, can well.

Basic rule: blanch them and remove the skins before you do any processing.

When I freeze them, I make a very light sugar syrup (10 quarts of water to 1.25 cups of sugar, adjust as needed in same proprotions) and add a little nutmeg to the syrup. Then after I've skinned and sliced the peaches, I add 2 tsp of lemon juice to the syrup per quart of water in the syrup and cook the peaches for a couple minutes in the sugar syrup (you can use fruit jiuce for this, but peach juice is hard to find, and apple juice isn't right. Pear juice works great if you can find it. Use the lemon juice, though.) Then they get packed into freezer containers and chilled in the fridge, then frozen.

Canning is the same process up to the packing, where they go in sterilized quart jars and into the hotwater bath for 45 minutes (altitude you know).

Given a choice of the two, I actually prefer my canned peaches to my frozen ones. The canned ones hold their shape better, and I can use them a bit more decoratively. And I'm one of those sick and twisted types who isn't enamored of fresh peaches (eating something that feels like a baby's cheek in my mouth squicks me out), but I like them canned or cooked. Thus the very light syrup or the juice.

[housewolf]

14. With all these ideas...

I'm partially regretting that I didn't go for the whole box!

(No, wait a minuite, I don't _really_ need 25 lbs of peaches... what I have is plenty!).

Nutmeg... YES! Required spice for peaches. I know where to find peach juice but will probably use the sugar syrup anyway.

Thanks for the info, it helps.

[SoCalDem]

15. oh my.. you reminded me.. YEARS ago my friend and I decided to go pick

peaches in Michigan (we lived just across the border in Indiana).. We paid in advance and as we exited, they gave us the size container we had paid for..

who KNEW there were so damned many peaches in a bushel?

It sounded like a good idea at the time..

We were PEACHED out :)

[Phentex]

20. I vote jam too...and smoothies while you make the jam.

MMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm peaches! :)

[GoneOffShore]

26. Peach daiquiris

with ginger