Can-it-Forward Day – Peaches

I’ve been flipping through blogs lately again, and of course seeing other people’s projects and posts is inspiring. That’s why when I saw Food in Jars post about Can-it-Forward Day, I immediately emailed a fellow food preservationist! Luckily she also noticed that Lone Pine Farms was having a sale on Sun Crest Peaches.

I’ve never canned peaches before, but luckily Shannon has. The Sun Crest variety are freestone, a must for canning. We had a lot of peaches so we picked through to find the ripest ones. Most of them peeled easily, and all of them pitted quickly. We didn’t even have to blanch them to peel the skins. Most we could just pull off. Occasionally we had to use a potato peeler for tough ones.

Canning Peaches – Picture curtesy of Shannon since I forgot!

Since I like to make canned things a little special and different from what you can purchase at the store, we added vanilla beans to most of the jars. We did a modification of the recipe in Canning for a New Generation (affiliate link). I recently purchased vanilla beans here. Since we got “chef’s quality” several of them were already split, and this was a perfect way to use a few up quickly so they don’t dry out! Plus peaches and vanilla? One of the divine food combinations.

Canned Vanilla Peaches

Ingredients

• 8 lbs. of peaches (freestone)
• 2 quarts of water
• 3 cups of sugar
• 4-5 vanilla beans
• 1-2 Tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar

Instructions

I’m not going to go over basic canning technique here. If you are new to canning, you can get a good primer here or here.

Prepare your jars and lids. Peel, pit and quarter your peaches. Once peaches are quartered, place them in a bowl of water and lemon juice/vinegar. This will help them stay a nice color.

Split your vanilla beans and cut in half.

Combine 2 quarts water and sugar in a pot and boil.

Pack quart jars with peaches. You’ll want to get as many as you can in there. We started with halves but found out that we could get a lot more in if we quartered them. Slip your vanilla bean along the side of the jar. Pour hot syrup filling the jar to 1/2 inch headspace.

Stick a small spatula along the side of the jar to try and get any air bubbles out and add syrup as necessary.

Place in the canning pot. Process for 20 minutes.

Pull out and see the beautiful golden peaches waiting for you during the winter fruit doldrums!

Since this is a cold pack method you will probably have some space in the bottom of your jars when they are done. There are other methods that help negate this, but that adds extra steps. Quite frankly, I’m just too lazy for this.

This was the first time we had canned with friends, and it made a lot of work much easier than if we had been doing it on our own. Adults split up between watching the little ones and working on peaches. Between the great conversation and the extra hands, we probably went through around 32 lbs. of peaches!