Annie’s Simple Peach Preservation

Today I harvested my first crop of peaches from my orchard.  I planted my peach trees three years ago, so I was very excited to have so many loading my trees, ready for harvest.

I have always found peaches to be very easy to process. Others have not found this to be the case, so I thought I would take a bit of time to explain my method, in hopes that others might be able to use it.

Annie’s Simple Peach Preservation

• Wash Peaches
• Fill large pot with water. Heat to boiling.
• Once water is boiling, gently place peaches into water. Let peaches be for about five minutes.
• Check peaches. Look for loosening of peach skin. Once several have loose skin, remove from boiling water.
• Place peaches directly into ice water. Keep water cold by continuously running cold tap water in bowl that is holding the peaches. Peaches will shrivel a bit, and skins will become looser.
• Select peach. Pinch skin between thumb and forefinger. Pull. Skin should pull right off of entire peach. Discard skin. I place mine in the chicken pan as a goodie for the chickens after I am completely finished.
• Thrust thumb into peach until you feel the pit. Peach should split open easily, popping pit into your hand. Discard.
• Repeat!
• Once you have skinned and pitted all of your peaches, you may preserve them one of two ways. You may freeze or can them.
• If you desire to can them, follow the directions in the Blue Ball book.
• If you desire to freeze them, (as I do,) allow them to cool, then place in a labeled 1-quart freezer bag. I like to pre-measure the peaches so I will have the perfect amount for whatever recipe I may be making.
• Lay flat in freezer. Once frozen, bags will be easily stackable for storage.

That is it! See? Simple! No more peeling the peaches with a knife. No more long hours bending over the counter. Well, at least not as many. I hope you find this method as useful and quick as I do.

Enjoy this wonderful season of canning and freezing, my friends! Way too soon the snow will be flying!

~Annie

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