Homegrown Peaches!

When we bought the property at this little place here, I planted a small 'orchard': 3 peach trees, 5 apple trees, 2 pear trees and 2 cherry trees.  They have grown slowly, with a few losses: one cherry tree died completely, the other has struggled, and a peach died back but came up again from the rootstock (so now I have no idea what variety of peach it is).

Last year I was able to eat a peach or two from my own trees.  This year, I actually got to can homegrown peaches!!

Not a lot of peaches, as the trees are still small.  From two of the trees (the Elberta and the Reliance, I believe), I harvested a total of about three and a half dozen peaches.  They weren't huge, and all fit into a large basket.

my peach harvest

Since I don't spray my orchard, quite a few of the peaches had bug bites and blemishes.  The largest, prettiest peaches I saved out for eating fresh.  Ahhh, the taste of a ripe peach fresh from the tree. . .

The others, I blanched, peeled, and cut off the blemishes.

blanched peaches cooling in the sink

From there, I pitted and quartered the peaches, briefly soaked them in a lemon juice and water mixture to help them keep their color, rinsed them, packed them into pint jars, covered them with a hot light sugar syrup, and water bath canned them for 25 minutes.  I have to admit, they aren't the prettiest canned peaches I've ever made, but I got the job done. 

first ever batch of homegrown canned peaches