Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A First For Me

More Peaches

I finally started canning!  The past few years I've researched canning and planned to do it, but then just never did.  Last year I got a bushel of apples and intended to can some of them, but instead made 3/4 of them into pies to freeze and stored the rest.

The last of the bushel.

This year I got a 1/2 bushel of peaches (I now wish I would have gotten a whole bushel).  The last two days I have been up to my elbows in peaches, literally, the juice runs everywhere!  They are SO good it was hard not to keep eating them!

Processing

My friend came over with her 1/2 bushel of peaches and we worked together.  It's so much more fun that way! 

Peach Pie filling!

I made all of my peaches into pie filling.  I started with 11 jars, but three from my first batch didn't seal. :(  This was a bit discouraging, but I quickly turned it around by making them into pies and freezing them.  So I ended up with 3 ready to bake pies and 8 quarts of filling.  I can't wait to have fresh peach pie in the middle of February!

Peaches

My friend canned all of the peaches she brought (she has another 1/2 bushel at home!) in light syrup.  She ended up with 8 quarts.  Don't they just look delicious?!  She was nice enough to leave behind 15 or so peaches and I plan to can a few pints like this, they just look too good not to have some!

We ordered our peaches from a small Amish market about 30 minutes from here and they also do the apples.  So we placing our order for apples here in the next few days.  I might be crazy, but I plan on getting 2 bushels.  The Jonathans they get are SO good.  My son and I just eat them up!  So I will probably get a whole bushel of just Jonathans and then a couple 1/2 bushels of two other kinds to have a mixture.  I plan on canning pie filling, applesauce and apple jelly, yum.

I also have a bowl full of tomatoes in the fridge from my friends mom and I plan on heading out to my parents this afternoon to pick what they don't want from their garden.  And then I'm heading to the farmers market in the morning to see if I can get a good deal on some more tomatoes!  Then I will can them to have tomatoes for chilli and salsa all winter.  I love this canning business!

So not much sewing, but lots of yummy peaches!

5 comments:

Cheerful Homemaker said...

This year I am determined to make my husband take me apple picking. I want to learn to can and I intend to do so with apple butter and/or apple sauce.

Next year I'm hoping to have a decent veggie garden so that I can process some of that food. Of course, our neighborhood is overrun with bunnies, so we'll see how it goes.

http://thankfullga447 said...

I have canned in the past, lots of work but well worth it. I have one jar of peach jam from last year. I am going to make raspberry jam this week.

♥Duff said...

looks delicious! Good luck with he apples and tomatoes!

Cindy Sharp said...

Oh, I bet the house smells good! They look wonderful.

Sally said...

I just made my first attempt at canning this week... salsa. I had gotten a bunch of tomatoes from my dad's garden over Labor Day weekend, and some peppers. I lucked out and all 7 of my pints sealed up nicely. Of course, we'll see how the salsa tastes... I used a bit of a hodge-podge of recipes.