And The Result Is...Success!

Saturday has come and gone and the desired task has been completed! We bottled peaches! I was crazy uptight about it...but you know what, it was actually very easy. If I can do it...anyone can do it!! Seriously.

For anyone else who would like to try their hand at canning some peaches this summer, here is what we did.

We first washed all of our peaches...our "purchased" peaches mind you. Our two trees are just babies and our entire harvest was about 15 peaches...better luck next year!

After we had given them a nice bath in some nice cool water...

We threw them into this boiling hot inferno to loosen their skins. Brutal but necessary.

Don't worry though, after about 60 seconds they were soon cooling off in this ice cold bath. You don't want them to cook.

In the meantime, I am making a simple syrup. I chose to do a medium syrup as that seems to be the syrup of choice for many canners. The recipe is 3 1/4 cups sugar to every 5 cups of water. I did a double batch. Cook this over medium-high heat until all of the sugar is dissolved. Once dissolved, turn your stove down to low so the syrup stays nice and warm. Make sure to not let any evaporation occur (I did this by just putting a lid on the pot).

Then it was peeling time. This would probably be what took the longest. So, just put on some good tunes and peel away.

Once all of your peaches are nice and slimy...

You can put them in your jars. Make sure and put them "pit" side down and layer them. Fill your jar to almost the first rim.

When you are done, your jars will look a little something like this.

Now it is time to pour in the simple syrup you made previously. You are supposed to fill your jars up to a "generous" 1/2 inch from the top of the jar. Also, try and get rid of any air bubbles that might have formed by either sliding a non-metallic utensil down around the fruit or just do what I did...just lightly shake the bottle around.

Once you have done that, it is time to put your hot lids on. To get your lids to the correct temperature, put them into a saucepan of water. Heat the water to a simmer (do not boil) then turn the temperature down. Leave the lids in the water until you are ready to use them. Make sure and only heat the lids, not the bands, you will want the bands nice and cool so you can twist them on. And you don't need to tighten them too tight...just until "resistance is met, then increase to finger-tip tight" Ball Home Preserving.

Now it is time to stick them in the pot and fill `er up. If you are incredibly strong, you can fill up the pot then move it. But if I were doing it alone, I would probably put the pot on the burner...then fill it with water. Make sure when filling your pot that your water level is at least one inch above the top of the bottles.

Then, crank up the heat. If you have a gas stove top or an electric coil type stove top you are good to go. If you have a ceramic top stove, you will probably need to look for another heating option as the water needs to boil CONTINUOUSLY for 30 minutes (with quart jars) and ceramic stove tops tend to have heat plates that cycle on and off. I have that problem, so we just pulled out the ole Camp Chef and that did the trick. And I didn't have to heat up my kitchen to boot. Yahoo!

Just checking for that "heavy rolling" boil so we can start the timer. Once it started, we timed it for 30 minutes, then turned off the heat...took the lid off...and let the jars sit for 5 minutes.

After that, we stacked them up on a towel, in a non-drafty spot, and waited to hear the "plink" of a nicely sealed jar.

And lucky for us they all sealed. We didn't do that many peaches...about 20 lbs. or so, but that was a good start. We learned a new skill and now I can't wait to tackle something else...next time...jalapeno pepper jelly! I am swimming in those things!!