Peach Preservation

Yummy peaches

It’s that time of year — or at least for our youngest it is.  Beth sent these pictures and suggested this article (thanks, Beth).  She lives in Georgia, recently visited in peach country and bought a box of culls for a good price.  I don’t believe she knows what variety they are, but I can tell by the color they are not my preference — even so they’ll be good next winter.

As you know, I have to tell how things used to be.  My mother used to use cling-seed peaches and make peach pickles — yum, yum.  I don’t have a clue what the ingredients were and I’ve tried to make same, but without much success.  I think she used vinegar, sugar and pickling spices, but what else and what proportions?  Back then we canned the clear-seed variety, but now I don’t know just what was added.  You don’t know what clear-seed means?  Well that means the “goodie” of the peach turns loose of the seed.  Makes sense, doesn’t’ it?

Georgia peaches

My choice in peaches won’t be ripe until the end of this month or the first of August –the Georgia Bell is our choice and the meat of them is white.  The flavor here is just a step above some of the other varieties and instead of canning we freeze.  In days gone by the peelings would have been saved, boiled, the juice strained and then used to make jelly.  I don’t save the peelings anymore. To prepare mine for the freezer first off I make the syrup and let it be cool when I’m ready for it.  I use two cups of sugar to one cup of water and bring it to a boil, stirring often.  To this I add something called Fruit Fresh® to keep the fruit from turning dark (the directions of how to add it to the syrup is on the box).

Now I’m ready for peach peeling and I like to peel a few, slice them and put them in the container or bag, pouring the syrup over them as soon as possible (this keeps the fruit from turning dark).  When we’re ready to eat peaches, we take them out of the freezer and partially thaw  — we like them best when they are still icy.  I want mine plain, but John likes his with milk added.

Ready for the freezer

Talk about making peach ice cream — this makes some of the best.  We have a six-quart, hand-turned White Mountain freezer.  Hand turned is better than that made in the electric freezer because it’s firmer.  I use a large package of frozen peaches at least partly thawed (my pkg. is almost a quart), 2 1/2 cups sugar and two eggs.  I put all this is a blender and blend well.  Then I put sweet milk in the bottom of the freezer container, add the sugar mixture and finish filling with sweet milk up to the marked line. Now we’re ready for the turners and this takes elbow grease, but talk about good.  This has to be some of the best of country living.