Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Millions of peaches....

PEACHES FOR ME!

I had half a bushel of peaches to can, courtesy of mom's recent trip to MI, but no time to process them.  Enter my super hubby who helped me peal and pit all these peaches so I could get them put up before they got even more ripe.  A few were sacrificed to appeaze the canning gods, aka snacks, along the way but we still ended up with 10 QUARTS!  Here's my simple method for canning peaches.

1. Sanitize your jars.  Lots of people do this in their dishwasher but I just use my how water bath and boil the glass for about 10 minutes.  (Don't boil the lids though as you will ruin the seal you need for later.)

2. Get your water bath started.  You'll need a large kettle big enough to put your jars in, with some space in between them, and room to fill it with enough water to cover your closed jars by a few inches.  Put it over high heat.

3.  Start the syrup for your peaches.  I use a one to five ratio so basically you want one cup of sugar to 5 cups of water.  Put both ingredients into a sauce pan and heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally.  If you want a sweeter syrup add more sugar.  I prefer this lighter one so you can really taste the peaches. 

4. Skin and quarter your peaches.  They should be ripe enough to just peal the skin off without having to cut it.  Cut any bruises out and drop your peach chunks into the sterile jars, filling them all the way to the top with about 1/2 inch to spare.  You can quarter or halve your peaches for this step.  We had quite large peaches so ours were cut in quarters.


5.  Pour your hot syrup into your jars, covering your peaches and filling it all the way to 1/4 inch from the top. 

6.  Screw on your new canning lids finger tight and place them in your boiling water bath.  Bring the water back up to a rolling boil and leave your jars in 20 minutes for pints and 30 for quarts.

7.  When times up turn off the heat under your water bath and let the jars sit a good five minutes before taking them out. 


TADA!  You just canned peaches.  Now you can enjoy their delectable flavor for months to come.  Of course it always helps if you have 2 supervisors watching quality control.  Ours took up position on the couch to watch the goings on in the kitchen.


Can on!
Anita

10 comments:

  1. Your peaches look great!! I just love cracking open a jar later in the winter and enjoying the flavors of summer!

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  2. mmmm Peach cobbler, peaches over ice cream, peach granita, peaches and whipped cream, peach chutney, peach jam...

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  3. Featured on FB! Thanks for linking up ~ I`ll have to save this recipe for later!! Yum

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  4. Canning is something I always wanted to try but keep putting off until Next year. I love the idea and you make it look so easy! Thank you for linking up to Upcycled Awesome!

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  5. Ooo! Can't wait to get started on my peach canning. Love them. Thanks for sharing. Karie

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  6. I LOVE CANNED PEACHES!!! They are so yummy! I need to learn to make them myself!! Thanks for sharing! I would love it if you would link this up to my Ta-Da Tuesday link party starting tonight at midnight!!

    http://mommybydaycrafterbynight.blogspot.com

    xoxo, Ashley J

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  7. After my first day of back to school and greet the teacher night I had 10 gallons of peaches ripening by the second. I canned 4 quarts when I got home and hope the others will hold off till tomorrow....

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  8. Millions of peaches, peaches for free?
    Millions of peaches, peaches for me?

    Tee hee!

    I'm a little jealous of your peachy bounty.

    I was so happy to see you on "A Little Birdie Told Me..." Tuesday this week!

    Jenn

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  9. Great job canning. Thanks for linking up to Sew Woodsy, but unfortunately we are a craft only link party, so I had to delete this post. We hope you will join us again tomorrow to link up a craft project!

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  10. You just made me really hungry for peaches! We are doing a little bit of canning this year. I hope it works out for us!
    myheartasamom.blogspot.com

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