Freezing peaches

I wish my mom were here.    As an old home ec. teacher, she knows the answer to everything.   I have called her a couple of times during Peach-palooza, but if she were here visiting, it would have saved me lots of time on the internet.

With almost a full bushel of peaches and nectarines to put up, I made jam until I thought I could make no more.   I had to freeze some.  (For some delicious stone fruit preserve recipes see Peach Honey, Peach Marmalade, and Nectarine Jam with Candied Ginger.)

When we purchased our peaches at Livesay Orchards, we were cautioned about the White County Peaches.   “Do not freeze these!” we were told over and over.   “They can fine but do NOT freeze them; they will turn brown.”   Okay, I will take this caveat from the experts.    I made jam with most of the white peaches, but I had a ton of the GloHavens left.   I needed to freeze some of those.

I think the last time I froze peaches we were working in mom’s make shift canning area in the garage.   This had to be over twenty years ago.   (OK, I should be honest, it was probably more like 30 years ago—YIKES!).    Mom had a sweet set up in our garage where she had a gas range and a full double-sided old time sink with the drain boards built in.    (Always the bargain hunter I think the range was a steal from a farm auction and that old time cast iron sink came out of our original farm house that mom soon remodeled after moving in.)    It was great to not have to heat the house up when processing fruit and it saved a lot on clean up too.

Anyhoo, I digress.

I wanted to freeze the remainder of the peaches so I searched the internet.   Apparently, to keep peaches from turning brown you must use ascorbic acid or Fruit Fresh and LOTS of sugar.    I don’t mind telling you that I was about sugared out with all the jam making.     So, I finally found some directions for freezing without a simple syrup—use white grape juice.    Luckily, I had some of this juice left over from my low-sugar blackberry jam experiments.

I quickly started blanching and peeling my last batch.

These are super easy directions.     Just peel the fruit and submerge in white grape fruit juice (I used the low-sugar kind) and Fruit Fresh.   Here’s the ratio:   1 t. fruit fresh per 1 cup of white grape juice.   Seal in freezer containers.   The more air you can remove, the better.   If you have a seal-a-meal, use it!

Let me tell you, these peaches looked beautiful.    I can’t wait to defrost them and make a pie or cobbler or simply put them over ice cream this winter.

If you remember, this is what I started out with.

This is what I ended up with.

But, Peach-palooza is not over.   No, no, no.   We are now picking white peaches off our own tree!

Stay tuned for a few more palooza inspired recipes.