We picked up two 26-pound boxes of peaches at Justy's Produce. They were not quite ripe when we picked them up last Tuesday (6 days ago). But today they seemed just about perfect. So we let the canning begin. We used the same basic approach we did a couple years ago, except this time we tried to fill the jars a little fully of peach slices.
Sharon blanched the peaches for 1 minute then dunked them in ice water to loosen the skins. I'd then peel the skin off and slice the peach. If it was ripe, and produced a nice slice it would go into one bowl. Otherwise it would go in the "jam bowl". Sharon would usually process three peaches into the ice water then attend to other canning stuff while I caught up.
Once I got enough for a jar full of peach slices, Sharon would pull a jar from the hot water bath and fill it with peach slices, then pour in a light sugar syrup (4 cups water, 2 cups sugar). The reusable canning lid and rubber ring would then come out of the little pot of simmering water and top the jar. Once ringed, back in the hot water bath it would go.
Once I got 4 cups of "jam peaches" they would go into the food processor with 2 cups of sugar an a little lemon juice.
We wanted a stove with at least five burners specifically for canning.
The water bath with jars of peach slices.
Here is two batches of jam just starting to simmer.
It requires pretty constant attention until it cooks down to a happy consistency.
Then into little jars and another hot water bath.
And the fruit of a day's canning.
For lunch, peach slices and chocolate ice cream!
These peaches are delicious! As a side note, I'm NOT loving the reusable canning lids. They are very difficult to get on the jar correctly because the rubber ring doesn't quite fit the plastic lid and then gets hung up on the metal twist ring. And these are new lids, right out of the box, so it can't be a problem caused by overuse.
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