Peaches and more peaches!

[thistlebloom]

What a nice sister Number Five is. You probably shared your honey with her too, huh?

 

[Fred]

What's the deal with peaches nowadays?

I remember as a youngster in the 70's store peaches could be bought in their shipping crate.
Each peach would be wrapped in a pink tissue.
These peaches were always the freestone type.
Aromatic, juicy and delicious (super delicious!).

Today, getting peaches like that up here in Minnesota is like finding a two dollar bill.
It can happen, but rarely! Always a freestone when it does.

Just bought a few Georgia's last weekend.
Cling type, nearly hard as baseballs.
Didn't ripen well, very little peachy odor, and dry pulpy flesh when tasted.

I WANT my freestone peaches!
The search continues....

Fred

 

[Southern Gardener]

What a nice sister Number Five is. You probably shared your honey with her too, huh?

I sure did. She is the sis that helped me out with the harvest. I'm going over to her house this evening to can. We have two recipes that we are going to use and I wanted to share one with y'all.

Honey-Spiced Peaches
Yields about 3 quarts

8 lbs small peaches
1 cup sugar
4 cups water
2 cups honey
3 sticks cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons whole allspice
1/4 teaspoon whole cloves

peel peaches and leave whole. treat to prevent darkening. Combine sugar, water and honey in a large saucepot. Cook until sugar dissolves. Drain peaches. Cook peaches one layer at a time in syrup 3 minutes or until hot throughout. Pack hot peaches into hot jars, leave 1/2 inch headspace. Add 1 cinnamon stick, 1/2 teaspoon allspice and 1/4 teaspoon cloves to each jar. Ladle hot syrup over peaches leaving 1/2 inch headspace. remove air bubbles and process 25 minutes in boiling water canner.

 

[journey11]

Nice haul!

I'm still waiting to see if mine are going to make out. I have trouble with brown rot if the weather is too damp/humid. If it stays like this I won't have to spray.

Fresh peaches go for $40 a bushel here. Enjoy 'em!

 

[Jared77]

That's the one thing I miss about the old house was the peach trees. Had 4 of them and they were crazy good. Big as softballs, soft and juicy. They were SOOO good. Never found out what variety they were either.

Made lots of peach butter but those 2 recipes I'm going to have to try if I can find some peaches. Those sound excellent!

 

[bj taylor]

the peach harvest in our area is a bust this year. that sure is a pretty harvest