Saturday, September 15, 2012

Bottled Peaches

Two bushels, 48 quart jars, and 13 hours, gives me 48 quarts of bottled peaches - Yeah!  I got a late start so I didn't get finished until after midnight but oh, in my minds eye, I can see it now....peaches and toast.  There's nothing better for a quick breakfast or a snack, than hot buttered toast with a bowl of peaches.  DELISH!
 
 

 
Here's how my day started out.......I purchased 4 boxes of peaches, which is equal to 2 bushels.  I got them last weekend but they were too green so I had to wait a week for them to get ripe enough to bottle.

Then into the sink they went for a good washing to get all the dirt and peach fuzz off.  Some had a few bruises here and there but nothing a good old paring knife couldn't take care of.

This is my processing set up......I put my big pot of boiling water on the back left burner.  When the peaches are all washed, I dunk them in the boiling water for approximately 60 seconds, put them in my sink full of cold water and the skins slip right off.  Sure beats peeling them all by hand with a knife.  Then I have the lids...top right, sugar syrup...bottom left, and finally my steamer on the lower right.  Modern conveniences....WoNdErFuL!

This is my first batch out of the steamer, 7 quarts in all.  Looks like golden sunlight, bottled.  Can you see my red tomatoes in the background.  I have them sitting on a cookie sheet.  They sure taste a lot better than tomatoes I buy in the store during the off season.  Let's hear it for gardens.

Ouch.....speaking of gardens, my husband just came in the house and said that the deer got into our garden last night and ruined a lot of produce, including our new apple trees we just planted this spring. Sad!.................Just ran out and took a few pictures of the garden.  About the only thing they didn't bother was the corn and spinach.  The sad part is the apple trees but the bright side is that it is the middle of September and I'm sure the garden wouldn't last much longer anyways.
 



 
UPDATE:  After the deer feasted on our garden, we did salvage enough cauliflower to get 13 pints.

2 comments:

Bridget and Ellyn said...

GO GARDENS!!!! Good work!

Anonymous said...

Everything looks yummy. You have your winter supply of food and when you get snowed in you will have yummy stuff to eat. Max