we’ve been up to here in peaches this week, with more to come and tomatoes to follow. then apples. It’s my third year for home-canning the last taste of summer, which hardly makes me a pro but I can honestly say it’s so fulfilling. A couple of hot steamy hours in the kitchen (ok, now it sounds really exciting) with all burners going and every inch of counter space in use. Then ta da! These golden beauties. And my neighbor Kristina, also a beauty, who asked me to, ahem, teach her how to can peaches. At least we had fun, even if things didn’t go perfectly. And she pretended to believe I knew what I was talking about. Nice of her.
If it’s your first attempt at canning, here are a few tips from a novice:
1. prepare everything you need to use before hand, and start your pots of boiling water several minutes before you actually begin doing everything else. Waiting for water to boil after you’ve sliced you fruit is not good.
2. when blanching your peaches, the books usually say to do it for 30 seconds or until skins split, whichever comes first. I’ve found that 30 seconds is usually too long because it takes a couple extra seconds to get the peaches out of the water and into the ice bath. 20 seconds should just about do it.
3. when working the bubbles out of your filled jars, be gentle so you don’t shred your beautiful peach halves.
4. Embrace the mess. There’s no avoiding it.
5. If you have small children, I recommend canning (it doest take a few hours) after they are asleep or long before they wake up. Many pots of boiling water, hot stoves, hot glass jars that look pretty and tempting, a sticky peach mess everywhere you turn, and a job that requires continuous movement from one step to the next. A bad situation for wee ones.
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Kimberly
...by day, making a home where the buffalo roam. By night, pretty much the same thing, punctuated by the occasional fantasies of sunny beaches, italian movies and sparkling lemonade.
Thanks for the tips. Maybe I will try again next year. I found it really hard to get the peaches in the jar before they started browning. Any tips?
you just have to work in small batches and it really helps to have an extra set of hands. Someone to slice, someone to pour the boiling water. Also, keep your blanched & skinned peaches in the ice bath until just before you slice them.
Also when you're sweating, the kids are climbing all over you in your dirty kitchen, and your feet are sticking to the floor, remind the kids: you will appreciate this in the winter!
I'm definitely trying my hand at canning if we have a good pear harvest this fall.
Your peaches look so yummy!
It builds character!
Azucar,
It builds character aaaaaand they'll thank you when it's cold outside.