When I was a youngster growing up in Washington state, my parents used to drive 30 miles to a big orchard to buy boxes of peaches to can. We would fill up the trunk of the car and then my sisters and I would spend a couple of days helping our mother put up all that delicious fruit for the next winter. Mama's favorite varieties were Red Haven and Hale Haven peaches.
As a newlywed freshly arrived in Minnesota many years later, I quickly learned the place to buy peaches for canning in Minnesota was at the grocery store. They came in 17-pound lugs, and were nearly always Elbertas from California. I would bring a couple of boxes home, spread the peaches out on newspaper under a bed, wait 2 or 3 days for them to finish ripening, and then get them into the jars.
Now that I live in Idaho, I've discovered Green Bluff can be a good place to purchase peaches. The grocery stores don't tend to carry lugs of peaches for canning, and the one fruit stand I know of in the area tends to sell poor quality produce. Last week I posted about my most recent expedition to Green Bluff. I only bought one box of peaches, and it was about 22 pounds. I spread half of them out in another box, covered it with newspapers, and waited. And waited.
In retrospect, I ought to have asked whether those peaches had been grown right there on that particular farm, or whether they had been brought in from elsewhere. Because a lot of the peaches are brought in from elsewhere, and they may have been picked too soon, hoping they would keep well until reaching their destination and being sold.
After waiting four days, and eating three test peaches that weren't quite ready yet, the fourth peach (on Day 4) was finally ripe enough, and the skin slipped off reasonably well, and it tasted sweet. So today, Day 5, was destined to be peach canning day.
But yesterday's test peach was deceptive. Only a few of those peaches were actually ripe enough to properly handle. The skins would not slip off of some, or would only slip off half of the peach. I did a lot of peeling with a paring knife, which is NOT the way it ought to be done. I struggled through half the peaches, which made 4 quarts, and then I called a halt. I will try again in a day or two, and next time I buy peaches, they will not be Elegant Lady peaches from Walter's Fruit Ranch. Belatedly, I am remembering @generikat told me about Hidden Acres, also in Green Bluff, which grows Red Havens. I need to remember that next year.
I did take a few photos of the process this morning. I need all four burners on my stove top: one to heat the canner kettle, one to boil the syrup, one to warm the lids, and one for the water used to dip the peaches. The ancient red Tupperware bowl is for transporting the dipped peaches to the cold water.
Since I now have a single basin sink, I use my two big bread bowls full of cold water. I put the dipped peaches into one, and then, after peeling them into the sink, I put them into the other bread bowl until I am ready to slice them and fill the jars.
There's the first jar of peaches, ready to have the syrup added. I hope the entire process goes more smoothly when I finish the job in a day or two!