Peaches

There is a little fruit orchard not far from here that I knew was selling pick-you-own-peaches this year.  I saw on facebook that they were getting towards the end of the season and wanted to go check it out.  My family wasn't too crazy about the idea, so I called my mama.  She was only too happy to go along.  Gotta love moms for that - going along when no one else wants to!

The trees were pretty well picked over and I was a little disappointed by our haul.  Until we weighed it in....  In 45 minutes, we picked over 100 pounds of peaches!  I was so proud of us!

I was blown away by just how yummy a peach can be when it's picked off the tree when it's ripe.  Wow!  I've had tree-ripened peaches before, but I guess I forgot how doggone fabulous they are!

So there I was with 100 pounds of ripe peaches.  The pride faded and the work began!  Mom picked me up a little food dehydrator and so I gave dried peaches a go.  I think they're yummy.  Most of my family doesn't agree, but that leaves more for me to enjoy during the dreadful winter months!

And I decided to make some peach freezer jam, too.  Aren't peaches just beautiful?

A little cooking, a little mashing, some sugar and away we go.

I discovered this product a few years ago at a health food store.  I like it because it doesn't call for as much sugar as traditional pectin does.  Do you know how much sugar goes into jam?  It's like you're making candy rather than fruit spread!

The majority of the fruit became puree for peach leather.  I grew up eating fruit leather which is like fruit roll-ups, only 100x better and better for you, to boot!  One of the few "health kicks" my mother had that I enjoyed!  Tofu hot dogs?  Not so much!

My kids and I LOVE peach leather.  If you've never had such a thing, you're missing out.  And it's relatively easy, compared to some forms of preserving fruit.  You simply wash the fruit, cut it into quarters and cook it in a tiny amount of water for 20-30 minutes.  Then you puree it in a blender with a little bit of honey.  I freeze the puree and sometime over the next few months, my dear mother will take the puree to her house and pour it out on the trays of her huge food dehydrator (the size of a small refrigerator!) that she still has from her health nut days!  Yeah for mothers!  You can also dry the puree in an oven or even a sunny window, but I've never tried it.

After working up almost 100 pounds of peaches, I sure was grateful that those peach trees weren't more loaded down with fruit.  Who knows how many pounds I would have come home with!