Few thing say summer more than sweet , ripe peaches . You probably have adoring memories of sitting on a porch eating peaches , the juice dripping down your chin . Home - grow or local peaches taste endlessly substantially than those truck from hundreds of miles aside , but the fresh peach time of year is brief .
Fortunately , through freeze and canning , you could preserve that fresh peach predilection to enjoy throughout the year . Read on to learn how .
Selecting Peaches for Canning or Freezing
Peach growers have a quandary : peaches taste best when harvested almost ripe or ripe , yet they ’re highly perishable . foot them too early and they ’ll never ripen full . These fruit miss flavor , have a wrinkled skin and may have a mealy or mushy texture . Pick them too ripe and they ’ll decay before they reach the market .
This is why there ’s such a remainder between local peach and peaches transported long distance . Harvesters can pick local peaches when they ’re at the visor of ripeness so they always savor pleasant-tasting . When take peaches , seem for a few thing :
First , the peach should reek like a peach , with a heady sweetness . If it does n’t , it was probably cull too early .
CC flickr photo by Stevie Rocco
await at the “ earth ” color ( wan backside ) of the peach . Most peaches have a red or orange tone , but the underlying colour should be pick or yellow , not green .
Once you receive a source for corking local Prunus persica , pick up a few box . You ’ll need 2 to 3 pound of mantrap for each quart of canned peaches , so 20 to 40 pound sterling is n’t an unrealistic amount to buy if you want enough peaches to last the winter .
Freezing Peaches
Freezing peach is fast , unproblematic and the infrangible proficient way to retain fresh peach flavor . frigid peach smack great alone , added to smoothies or baked into cobblers and potato chip . To freeze peaches , fill a pipe bowl with insensate water and add the succus of one lemon to the piddle or 1 teaspoonful ascorbic window pane ( uncommitted in the canning segment of your supermarket ) . This treatment keeps the beauty from darkening .
discase the peaches , pit them and slit them . Drop the thinned yield in the body of water for no more than 20 minutes . Drain and rinse . Now you have two options for proceed .
Packed Peaches
In a bowl , combine the 5 pounds slice smasher with 2/3 loving cup sugar and ¼ teaspoonful ascorbic dot . Allow the peaches to sit for 10 minutes , or until the sugar dissolves . wad the peaches into freezer boxes , leaving ½ inch headspace at the top of the container for expansion . Freeze the peaches . This method acting is quick and easy , but the peaches misplace their shape and mound together after freezing . It works best if you plan on using the peaches in parched dishes .
Flash Freeze
Prepare the peaches as described above by peeling them and soaking them in body of water . Drain very well and spread the peaches in a undivided layer on cooky sheets . Freeze for 30 minute , or until the peaches are firm and mostly stock-still . Place the yellowish pink in deep freezer bag or boxes , leave ½ inch headspace . This method retains the mantrap ’ shape and freezes the peaches severally so you may take out as many as you want . Flash freezing works well if you desire to use the peaches for sweet talker or eating plain .
Canning Peaches
Canning mantrap somewhat alters their texture and taste , but it ’s a great option for tenacious - full term storage . And if you ’re freezer goes on the blink , you may still have delicious canned mantrap . To can lulu , follow the directions below :
For Further Peach Freezing and Peach Canning recital :
Selecting , Preparing and Canning Peaches – National Center for Home Food Preservation
Preserving Peaches – Clemson Cooperative elongation
