Putting Up Lots of Peaches!

Have you ever had peaches picked straight off the tree? Ripe?

It was the year for peaches at my parent's house, let me tell you. This is 2 days worth of peaches off of one of their 4 peach trees. No worms this year and amazing flavor! I've been busy using up these beautiful luscious pieces of fruit so that we can enjoy their yumminess all year long.

But before I started that I had to get a peach cobbler on my cabinet.

 I couldn't concentrate without that important step under my belt. It wasn't as good as my mom's, but it was just one teeny step shy of divine. Especially warm with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream on top.

I had to go buy a new water bath pot for this project. It was either that or try to can in the pot sitting next to it. I was kind of intimidated when it showed up. Definitely a smart purchase.

Here's what it did for me -- 6 quarts of peach jam and 5 pints of honey-almond peach syrup. Would you believe these peaches are so sweet I actually didn't need at add any sugar to the syrup? Just about 1/4 cup honey for some flavor and so I could officially call it 'syrup' instead of 'puree'.

I tried two different kinds of muffins. We were divided in the house as to which recipe we liked better. The boys preferred this first one.

The girls thought this recipe by Emeril was better. It had a more spongy texture than the first set, and wasn't quite as sweet. (By the way, there is an error on that recipe -- it calls for 1/4 cup butter or 1 stick. I opted to use the whole stick because what's not better with more butter? I think it was the right call.)

But honestly, in the end I decided peach muffins weren't a good use of these gems. It just didn't highlight the actual fruit enough for my liking. But, again, I'm comparing everything to the standard of a peach cobbler. 

Most of them ended up getting cut into slices and frozen individually. After they were solid I stuck them in freezer bags. We ended up with a few bags...

We'll definitely use these in our green smoothies that we have each morning.

Mom sent me home with several pie and cobbler fillings, so I didn't have to make any more of those.

And as you can see, we still have a few left to eat...

Straight and unaltered has been our favorite method of consuming!

I think my 2-year old has eaten his weight in peaches.

Thanks for stopping in to see what is making me feel so accomplished this week. These peaches will taste extra good this year knowing what went into preserving and preparing them!

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Apricots

Not from my trees, unfortunately! These are from my parents' tree. This is a teeny tiny fraction of what they have produced in apricots this year. And they are so sweet and flavorful.

I peeled and pitted and froze a pie filling.

Some pieces were too ripe and not firm enough to hold together in a pie, so I froze those individually on a wax paper coated cookie tray, then put them in a bag to save for smoothies.

Maybe one day my baby trees will produce, too! I'd love to have enough to try my hand at dehydrating.

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