Millions of Peaches

I have always loved peaches, not just any peaches but homecanned peaches that were canned when the peaches were so sweet and perfectly ripe that they are irresistable.  Last summer a lady from church did a series of canning classes.  She taught us to make apple pie filling, cooked ground beef, cooked cubed chicken and peaches.  I had ordered a box (24 lbs) in anticipation of learning to do it myself.  When we got the peaches I put most of them in my fridge as it was another two weeks before the class.  We ate many of them as they ripened and enjoyed them immensely.  The day of the class I took my peaches and spent the evening with about 8 ladies canning them.  The result was beautiful, perfect jars of Eastern Washington peaches that we ate throughout the past year.

The oppotunity came to order peaches this year and I ordered three boxes as my Uncle  had said he'd like to have some.  My friend Kari had asked me to teach her to can peaches so I ordered another two boxes.  These boxes were 24 lbs each and I was feeling rather ambitious.   Long story short we ended up with over 100 lbs of peaches that needed canning.

Luckily I talked to a few people who gave me some tips to processing large amount of fruit.  (I'll do another how to blog another day.)  I had set aside time for canning that week and it was my main priority.  Monday morning I started cleaning house and by the time it was clean enough to use it was 1:00.  I was determined so I started in.  Kari came over and we got three batches done that day.  Tuesday I ended up needing to can more as they were very ripe and I worried we'd loose some.  I had boxes of peaches all over my dining room and everytime I turned around my littlest had a half-eaten peach in his hand.  He was our quality control guy. :)

So, Tuesday I got four batches canned and that left three batches on Wednesday.  Kari took the lead on Wednesday which was a life saver as my little one had a meltdown at about noon.  I spent the afternoon holding him until he fell asleep while Kari continued.  The small one went down for a nap and we finnished up.  I would not recommend to anyone with small children to try to can by themselves.  Having a friend makes it so much more pleasant especially since one of you can keep going while the other wrangles kids and the kids keep each other occupied.

The end result was 80 quarts of canned peaches.  They are delicious and well worth the work.