Just Peachy!

I have a friend locally who has a large orchard. She grows all kinds of stuff, but mostly apples. She also has peaches. I asked her to let me know if she had any "peach seconds." Seconds would be produce that had something a little wrong with it but was still usable. They may have bad spots or, in her case, a spot where one of her ducks has taken a bite. They're great for canning and freezing because it doesn't matter if they don't look perfect - you just cut off the bad parts and go on. I love that it keeps the fruit from getting wasted. How can you stand to waste delicious summer fruit?!


Well, I heard from her late last week and she sold me 20 pounds of peach seconds for $6. Yep - 20 pounds of peaches for only $6. That's easier than growing them myself! Ask around your area for an orchard or pick-your-own place. You never know what type of deals you might find.

As you can see, most of my peaches were pretty good. Some were pretty mushy or moldy, especially by the third day I worked on them, but I was able to use all of them.


I was able to peel, slice and freeze 4 quarts and put them in a deep freeze. To freeze them you will first need to peel them. You can either do this by blanching them (immersing them in boiling water for about 30 or 40 seconds and then transferring them to an ice bath causing the skin to come off easily) or just using a top grade fruit and vegetable peeler. Cut off your bad spots and cut the flesh completely away from the pit - remember not to waste! Line them out on a cookie sheet (I had wax paper on mine but don't think it was necessary) so that they will freeze individually. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for an hour or two, then remove and put them promptly into freezer bags and put them in the deep freeze. This way, you can pull out just a handful of peach slices if you want to drop them in your oatmeal or have them for a snack without defrosting the whole bag at once.

I also had some leftover strawberries in the freezer and I made a strawberry-peach jam. It's heavenly. I think it'd be great as a dessert jam, maybe on homemade biscuits after dinner or as a filling for a layer cake. We also ate lots of fresh peaches this weekend and today I used the last of them for a peach cobbler. I'm planning on asking for more. It's just such a great price and I was able to keep them in the fridge and work on them little by little over the weekend. I may make a frozen peach pie filling so during the winter I can just whip up a crust and pour it in and be ready to go. I love that we'll be enjoying the fruits of our labors long into the winter.