peaches galore

Sep 14, 2010

Let me tell you about my amazing friend, Katherine. She organized a group of family and friends into a canning battalion. When I arrived they had two turkey roasters set up for blanching (brilliant idea!), an enormous cooler with a cold hose running in it to cool the hot peaches down quickly, two buckets with ascorbic acid for the peaches to sit in while they were waiting to be peeled, a large canopy to provide shade to all of us while we worked, a table with bins and knives for our peeling and slicing pleasures, more water with ascorbic acid for the peeled peaches to sit in while they waited for us to slice them, a table with hot, freshly sterilized jars wrapped in Saran Wrap, two camp stoves (then we added in mine), six water bath canners, a table covered with lids and rings, and two huge tables awaiting our completed jars.

Amazing. Simply amazing. Kat is a domestic goddess and I have oh so much to learn from her.

We got right to work and continued to work till about long past dark. Eleven hours of blanching, peeling, slicing, filling, wiping, hauling, scalding, lifting, roasting, laughing, talking, dancing, and ooh-aah-ing over our beautiful jars. It was so fun working with Kat’s whole family. Her father is hilarious and kept us all in line and all the brothers and sister-in-laws truly seemed to enjoy one another’s company. It is just what I want my family to be like when all these kiddos are grown up – everyone coming home for massive canning days.

Thanks to Blythe and Keziah’s babysitting, the children were kept happy and entertained and the adults were able to work mostly uninterrupted.

We were able to do 12 bushels and get 234 quarts of lovely peaches, sweetened with apple juice. None of that slimy high fructose corn syrup for us!

My share is 72 jars and a quarter bushel of fresh peaches to eat this week.

Yummm!

p.s. Notice my fabulous, cover-your-entire-front apron? It is my grandmother’s and I am filled with joy from head to toe when I wear one of her aprons while cooking, canning, or baking. Her aprons don’t quite fit me perfectly and I am hoping Kat will make a pattern off of this one and then we can make up some new ones in honor of my grandmother. Maybe I could give them as gifts to my daughters or something. And yes, Kat is that amazing…she can look at things and make patterns for them…not just a duplicate, but an adjustable pattern for a variety of sizes.