Canners of Peaches

Matt has become fascinated with the whole canning process. I have no idea what started him on it but it may have had a lot of factors. (Apparently, his mother used to talk about canning peaches as a child because her dad loved peaches. And while we were at the Farm, Gram had talked about all the different things they used to can every year before the winter. So, we're up to two factors... *counting diligently on my fingers*)

Matt LOVES peaches. And so it came to be that we decided to can peaches. I was actually excited. After all this talk about canning and everything, it sounded like a fun thing to do. And I love anything that involves large groups of people. People make everything even more funner! (More stressful too but let's overlook that. *grins* Also, if you could bypass the fact that funner isn't a word, I would appreciate that too.)

Matt's mom, Lesley, bought a canner and said that we could use it...in her kitchen, no less! YAY FOR LESLEY!! (And Tim! You can't leave out the husband. He lives there too.) My house is a horrendous mess right now between the remodel, the move and various other insanities. So it was seriously awesome that we had a kitchen other than mine to can in.

Matt and I set out on Friday afternoon to buy some peaches in Thorp. What a deal! *faints with joy* A box of peaches for $7.50?!? That's cheaper that at the grocery store even with all the driving! It was so pretty out there and the wind was insane. (For example, look at my hair. I would hope you wouldn't think that I actually style it that way...)

We brought home six boxes of peaches. We were hoping it was enough to can about 40 jars as well as leaving enough for us to share fresh peaches with other people. The only disconcerting things was that the peaches were as hard as rocks! They were cold so we hoped that once they warmed up that they would be ripe enough to can. *crosses fingers*

So this morning, we showed up at Tim and Lesley's with our boxes and boxes of peaches. Lesley had the whole kitchen all set up! She's so nice!! I was so unprepared because I had forgotten to read up on canning before joining the venture so I was pretty lost the whole way through. The basics were:

1) Blanch the peaches in boiling water for up to 30 seconds
2) Slip the skins of the peaches
3) Cut the peach in half, pit and scrape away fibers
4) Stuff as many into a hot jar without making a pulpy mess
5) Ladel in the syrup
6) Remove the air bubbles
7) Wipe the lid, screw on the top then set it in the canner to boil for 30 minutes

Woah! That's a lot of steps!!

Luckily, we had lunch first. *yum* And Matt's aunt, uncle and cousin showed up to eat with us. They're very nice people and Natalie is adopted from Korea which is super cool. Soon lunch was over and it was time to can.

WHAT A DISASTER! WHAT A FIASCO!!

We blanched and blanched those suckers and the skin would NOT come off. Finally, we gave up because we were practically cooking them to death. So we had to peel them with vegetable peelers which should have given us the first clue that they weren't ripe enough to can. But we were determined! They had a slight yet distinct green tinge to them (indicating non-ripeness) once the peels were off yet they were still passed off to the cutting board. Then the circus act began.

We sliced it in half and then tried to twist the halves off. Do you have any idea how hard it is to try and twist a peach in half when it's hanging on to its pit for dear life?!? Needless to say, there were a lot of peaches that popped up and out between fingers covered with peachy slime. They flew into the sink, onto the floor and everywhere. We were a mess! And yet, still determined. We managed to find the ripest peaches from all six boxes and were able to can one jar of peaches. ONE. *laughing hysterically*

It was still fun. With all the "not quite ripe" peaches, Natalie and I made cobbler. Lesley had a fantastic recipe. We added our own secret ingredient. (Orange extract) And it was SO good! All in all, I think it was a successful day.

P.S. By the way, the first jar of peaches looked good in the picture. But the fruit shrank a little after being boiled and it ended up looking like specimens floating in peach-colored formaldehyde. I'm assuming it's not suppose to look like that...