So after the rousing success of the Cherry Weekend, I decided to do it all over again, this time using Peaches. A nice company called Tree-ripe Citrus (tree-ripe.com) has deliveries all over the WI state area, one of which was just 3 miles from the house. I asked my husband to meet me there so he could get them home while I went back to work. Good thing too because I got turned around, couldn’t find the truck and never did see my husband. But he picked up a box of peaches and a box of blueberries. When I got home they were all laid out on the table per the instructions. Two days later I canned them.

I had over 70 peaches in the box and by canning time the majority of them were at an optimal ripeness. We kept out a handful for fresh eatting and blanched the rest. It went well and most of the skins peeled off super fast. We did several pint-and-a-half jars of peach halves, several pint and large jelly jars of peach slices, seven quarts of peach-blueberry pie filling, and about a dozen peach jam, and a dozen peach-blueberry jam. And we froze some blueberries in small packets for winter use. The final total was 39 jars of stuff, four loads in the waterbath canner.

Having never canned anything except cherries, and only recently doing it all by myself, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Admittably my mother raised me right so I have basic information in my brain from childhood – enough that I will never do my own tomato canning, and enough that, if given a recipe, I can get through it without issue. But I loved these peaches! Freestone Georgia Peaches. First – I didn’t realize there was a difference in stones so I wouldn’t have know to look for that. I do not know enough about all the different brands and growing locations and such – my information is vast when it comes to apples, when it comes to peaches – I can tell them apart from necterines. That’s about it.

I also didn’t get any fruit fresh. I have kosher sour salt which is citric acid, and therefore basically the same thing. Also much cheaper. And I found a recipe for pie filling at http://cookingmadly.com/peach-blueberry-pie-filling/ but put the lemonjuice in too early so had issues with the clear jel. I’m sure it will taste just fine though. The amounts given are huge, need a huge pot, and produce 7 quarts. After the pie filling though, when I ran out of peaches for jam, I filled in with blueberries to get a full batch which yeilded me two rather distinct batches.

After it was all done I just wanted to sit and stare at my jars of peaches! The red fruit from around the stone turned everything a lovely peachy color and it’s pretty entrancing. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. And I’ve already put the peaches on my calander for next year. I’ll have to get more of them though, a lot more of them. Maybe not as much as I get of cherries but more than I got this year. I also think with more (two days of canning worth) I can even better optimize the ripeness level and I’ll have more opportunities to learn how to pack the jars so they look “fair-worthy” on my shelves.

And I have convinced my husband that we need to do apples this year as well since I have all the equiptment to do apples (a corer/peeler and a masher) and plenty of jars left.