Peaches! - Part 1, 80 pounds

I purchased 120-ish pounds of peaches a bit ago and have been busy preserving them. My awesome cousin drove about three hours to help and I am so thankful for her willingness to come. I am also thankful to have a canning buddy because it makes the job much more pleasant!

I generally can following instructions from www.pickyourown.org, a site devoted to pick-your-own farms, but also having beautiful instructions for preserving a variety of produce. Click here for the instructions for peaches.

Overall we canned 30 quarts and 24 pints of peaches in about 6 hours. We packed the jars tightly in order to save seals so it wasn't the mass of jars that always looks so satisfying. We estimate that it was about 80 pounds because one of my boxes wasn't ripe yet, I lost a few to mold, and we ate a few. DD#3, who can be quite a rascal, ate several because she managed to sneak one here and there and take a few bites.

Here's the finished product.
One cool thing my cousin tried was to use a jar from her Classico spaghetti sauce. She brought it for dinner the night before and when we peeled the label she noticed it said 'Mason' on it and that a regular seal fit the top. So we gave it a go and it worked beautifully. I thought this was especially resourceful. Her jar is the one on the left.

My cousin also bought 75 pounds of peaches herself, but they weren't ripe enough to can that day so she ended up taking them home. I'm hoping to help her, too, in a few days.

Next up: Freezing Peaches

Katie