Canning Peaches

I am in high gear doing a lot of home canning.  The produce is coming in fast, back to back right now.  I just finished up doing cucumbers just in time to start peaches.  I'm a bit disappointed this year in that we have two peach trees and a pear tree at our new home but due to a very abnormal heat wave back in March followed by heavy frosts, we won't see much in the way of fruit.  Local peaches are very small because of the adverse weather.

The kids went to the Niagara area so picked me up a bushel of peaches.  These were gorgeous looking peaches but a bit pricey ($45 per bushel) and they weren't cling free.  A cling free variety like Red Haven is a lot easier for pitting and less time consuming when home canning a lot of peaches.  However, beggars can't be choosers so I was happy to get these lovely peaches to work with.  The price simply meant making a few products that would ensure I recouped the cost and then some.  That's always the way it goes when buying produce.  In all honesty, there are some foods that you will just break even if home canning but others end up being almost free.  So, in the big picture over a year's worth of home canning there is no doubt that the savings are substantial.  Rest assured you are getting a better product than store bought, free of preservatives and artificial flavours and/or colourants.

Quite often when I am switching produce for home canning I start with something simple.  That is because I tend to work from the easiest to most complex when home canning.  I started the peaches by canning 7 - 500 ml jars of sliced peaches in a light syrup.  Don't they look gorgeous?  Now, when canning plain peaches there is a very low margin of cost savings over store bought but again you end up with a superior product.  Watch for all the nice home canned peach products I made coming up this week.  It's a peachy time...

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