Along the Snake River, there are 100s of gorgeous orchards. My favorite is Kelley Orchards. I went to school with Jason Kelley and he's since passed away so I shop there for sentimental reasons.
Yesterday I stopped by the Kelley Orchard fruit stand and picked up a box of peaches.
I grew up canning with my step-mother. We made several trips to River Road in Buhl, Idaho each summer where Kelley and the other orchards sold their fruit. We spent summer days peeling peaches and getting them in jars so we could enjoy the summer freshness all year long.
Peaches are easy to can and the rewards are great. Yes, it's a lot of hard work. Yes, you could buy something at the store. I prefer the taste of home-canned produce. It's fresher and it tastes sweeter after all the hard work you've put in!
I'm sort of a canning junkie. I'm a "Master Food Preserver" through the University of Idaho Extension Service. In typical Karma fashion, I probably read more about it than do it. I really enjoy canning and when I do it, I find it very rewarding and peaceful.
I have the luxury of an extra kitchen in an old farm house about a city block in distance from my house. To get started, I fill a water bath canner with water and place 7 clean, empty jars in it. (I use quarts for peaches) This allows you to boil the jars to sterilize them a bit and keeps them hot, which is important.
I have another pot for the hot sugar syrup and one with boiling water for scalding the peaches.
I set up my canning area so I have everything I need within arms reach.
For this process, I follow the recipe in the Ball Blue Book. (It's important to follow updated recipes). I do make one slight change. The recipe calls for slicing the peaches, treating them with an anti-oxidation agent and then draining the peaches.
I don't do that. I slice the peaches directly into the jar and put the anti-oxidation agent in the syrup. I don't drain the peaches. I like the juice.
But more on that in a minute.
To get started, you need to soak the peaches in boiling hot water for about 30 seconds and then plunge them into cold water. That will loosen the skin to the point you can just pull it off with your fingers.(I just give it just a little twist and the skin with come off.) Once the skin is off you can then cut your peaches. My kids love to help with this.
If you're going to cut them all and store them in a bowl until you have enough for your jars, you should treat them with something to prevent them from darkening. I think the easiest is "Fruit Fresh" available at grocery stores. You can crush vitamin C pills (I think that's too much work) or you can use lemon juice. Your canning books should have a recommendation for you.
I slice my peaches directly into the jars. I have a hot sugar syrup (water, sugar) ready and I put the anti-darkening agent in the syrup following the directions on the bottle of Fruit Fresh. I pour the hot syrup over the peaches, again according to the Ball recipe. You have leave a certain amount of head space at the top of the jar in order to get a good seal. Once filled, there are 2-piece canning lids. (Again, follow instructions on the box of lids) It's also important to remove the air bubbles from the jar. Do this with a smooth plastic spatula or something similiar. Do not use metal, it could chip the glass.
I use an old spatula, but they make special bubble-getter thing for canning. I've lost 3 or 4 of them, so I stopped buying them.
Adjust the lids. One of the mistakes people make is over tightening the lids. You tighten to the point of friction and then just a bit more. I set the jars in the canning rack until I have my canner filled.
Once I have my canner loaded, I lower the filled jars into the water. There should be an inch of water over the top of the jars. I wait for the canner to come to a full boil and then I start my timer.
Water boils at different temperatures at higher altitudes. It's important to remember all recipes are written for sea level. So if you don't live at sea level, you have to adjust your canning time. The recipe calls for a 25 minute process for my quarts of peaches and at my altitude I need to add 10 minutes. I realize I'm starting to sound like a broken record here, but again, there are instructions for adjusting processing times in reputable canning books. Follow them.
After the process time ends, turn the heat off and leave the jars alone. Let them sit for a good 5 minutes. (I let them sit a bit longer) After the rest time has elapsed, take the jars carefully out of the canner and set them carefully on a towel. (Don't forget to use your jar grabber -- tongs specially designed for lifting jars) Make sure there no air conditioners or fans blowing directly on the jars. They need to cool down naturally. As they cool, they'll seal. You might even hear a cute little "pop". The lid will suck in toward the fruit and you won't be able to push it down.
If you have a jar that doesn't seal you can re-process immediately or put it in the fridge and enjoy the peaches for dinner.
It's a slow process. My six jars took the better part of 2.5 hours to finish, plus more time for cooling. When I open these peaches in January, those hours won't seem too bad.
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