One of the reasons why we bought this house was because of the existing orchard.
Our property has 5 peach trees on it. I was really excited to find this out because my mother in law Viola has always had peach trees and canned her peaches. I can remember when Jamie and I were dating, we would have dinner at his parents house and have canned peaches with vanilla ice cream for dessert. I don't think I had ever tasted anything so yummy. Once I learned how to preserve, over the next few years Viola would bring me some of her fresh peaches and I would can them for my family.
Our property has 5 peach trees on it. I was really excited to find this out because my mother in law Viola has always had peach trees and canned her peaches. I can remember when Jamie and I were dating, we would have dinner at his parents house and have canned peaches with vanilla ice cream for dessert. I don't think I had ever tasted anything so yummy. Once I learned how to preserve, over the next few years Viola would bring me some of her fresh peaches and I would can them for my family.
Our peach trees started out wonderfully, lots of peaches on each tree. I was actually getting a little worried that I would be spending weeks canning peaches with all we had on the 5 trees. Unfortunately the Cicadas came this year, they come once every 7 years. They ruined our peach crop. Within weeks of the Cicadas leaving our peach tree leaves started turning yellow and withering. The peaches started to rot. Needless to say I was NOT happy. Of course there was nothing I could do about it.
When the remaining peaches where finally reading to pick, which was last weekend. I went and picked what was still good.
This is all I got. Approximately 30 peaches.
This is all I got. Approximately 30 peaches.
I was a little disappointed about the peaches when I cut into them because they are not yellow cling peaches, which is the kind my mother in law had. I hadn't had any other type of peaches before. I believe the kind we have are white peaches, since they are white inside. I tasted them and thankfully they were delicious. Drew even had a bowl of them.
As little as it was, I really wanted to process these but once I peeled them and cut them off the pit I didn't have much at all. I couldn't justify the time spent to can that little amount.
The picture below is all I got from peeling and cutting them up.
Peeled and sliced peaches from our orchard
In checking my Blue Ball Canning Recipe book for canning peaches I found a recipe called Four Fruit Juice. This recipe calls for 4 cups of peach puree. So I pureed the peaches up and froze them.
I will be getting the other ingredients for the juice when I go shopping tomorrow and will be making and canning the juice over the weekend. I'm very interested in seeing how the juice will come out and taste since I've never made my own juice before.
I'll let you know how it tastes.
Darn Cicadas! They are bad here every year. I think they are on a rotation here that helps them have a new batch each year. One year they were worse. They were everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see what you think of your juice.