The wife still remembers sitting at the kitchen table
and watching her grandmother and mother can...
apricots, peaches, and pears.
Oh, my!
The aroma was sensational.
To continue this time-honored tradition the wife and some friends got together,
bought about 88 pounds of peaches whole sale,
researched the whole process online,
called their mothers and picked their brains about it,
bought canning gear,
and after 6 hours of hard work...
Voila!
What we discovered:
- You can peal your peaches or blanch them to remove the skins. Blanching involves placing the peaches in boiling water for approximately 1 minute, then placing them immediately into an ice bath for 1 minute, and rubbing off the skins with your hands. You know the boiling portion of the process is working if the skins split while the peaches are in the water. (Our peaches took 2 minutes of boiling in water to split their skins.)
- The best way to cut the peaches is to place them in one of your palms (stem side down) and cutting 7-10 vertical slits evenly all the way around the peach. These slices will then easily fall away from the pit with a little encouragement from your fingers. (It's best not to include the very bruised portions, or moldy spots - the firm sections are the tastiest.)
- Tightly pack your slices into a glass canning jar of your choice. Pack them up to just below the neck of the jar. If you don't tightly pack the slices you may have 2 inches or more of juicy space left in each jar after you're done canning.
- For 22 pounds of peaches, if you've packed your jars tight, you'll only need about 3-4 cups of white grape juice, apple juice, or very light syrup. (The fruit juices can be diluted in water, if you like. A very light syrup consist of 1/2 cup granulated sugar of your choice dissolved in 4 cups of water. Heat the water to a boil to dissolve your sugar in it.)
- Most of the recipes we read instructed us to leave 1/2 an inch of head space in the jars. This means you leave 1/2 of an inch between the top of your fluid and the lip of each jar. Remember to poke a spatula into the sides of the jars to dislodge trapped air. You may then need to add more fluid. Clean the lips of the jars well so the lids will seal.
- Place the lids in boiling water for about 10 minutes to sterilize them. You can remove them and immediately place them on your jars wet, or dry them and place them on the jars - it doesn't matter and won't change the sealing process.
- Place the jars in a wet bath to seal the lids. We got the granite ware brand pot; it's fairly inexpensive. You place your jars in the pot with warm water. A steal cage prevents the jars from touching the bottom of the pot. You heat the water to boiling. The jars remain in the boiling water for 30 minutes (if you're above sea level, you may need to boil them for 40-45 minutes).
- If your jars are already hot from the juice, syrup, and peaches, then placing them in nearly boiling water isn't a bad idea. But if they're cool, then warm the jars and water together - otherwise you'll have glass and peach stew.
- The contents of your jars will boil and bubble - that's normal.
- Find lots of space on your counters to leave your jars after you retrieve them from the wet bath. Lots of movement can prevent the lids from sealing properly. You let the jars cool and rest for 12-24 hours. You may hear the lids popping randomly into a seal during that time - that's normal too.
- If the jars don't seal, you can try boiling them again, or just sitting down and eating your peaches.
- Your peaches will shrink after the jars have boiled in the wet bath. Don't worry, this is also normal.
