Saturday, September 18, 2010

Peaches!!!!!

Time for Peaches!
I love this time of year because of all the fruit we get to preserve: apples, pears, and peaches!
It's also the time chocolate can be ordered, too. (but that's another story!)
Here's how I preserved our peaches: frozen and dehydrated.

With our box of peaches,
I put about 5 or 6 in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes to loosen the skins.


Then I put the peaches in ice cold water to stop them from cooking all the way through.
I just want to heat the skins enough to separate them from the pulp on the inside.
The skins slip right off! So Easy!



                                                
Then I cut them in half, take out the big seed, and slice them for dehydrating and freezing.
(Dehydrating: 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick, for about 8 - 10 hours, or till crispy)
(Freezing: 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick, for about 6 hours, or until nearly frozen)
The slices then go either on the dehydrater trays to dry, or on a jelly roll pan for freezing. 


After they were nearly frozen through, I took a large pancake turner (metal) and scraped them from the pan and put them in a ziploc bag for further freezing.


I love the color of the water after scalding a few batches of peaches.
Rich rose color! (although this picture doesn't do it justice - a bit blurry)


These are the frozen peaches. Turned out great!


And these are the dehydrated peaches.
Quite thin, but still pretty good eating.
This was the first batch - paper thin.
(The other batches were thicker)

But whether thick or thin, they're still good eating!

2 comments:

Nonna said...

Those are so beautiful Patty ! I bought the newest canning book from Ball Co. but haven't done a thing yet this year. When I was younger and our kids were growing up, I canned each year and made jams, especially when we had our own plot at the church farm. There is nothing so tasty and satisfying as your own hands doing the work and then enjoying the finished product !!!

Unknown said...

Looks yummy. I bet a lot of those frozen peaches will be on their way to becoming smoothies very soon!