Putting Up Peaches: 2013

Our neighbor participates in a fund raiser every year that involves Palisade Peaches.  The peaches that come from Colorado's Western Slope are so delicious.  Really, the best, in my opinion.  The program she works with provides college scholarships to women which we are very happy to support.

Back in February, Hubba placed our order.  She wasn't even taking orders yet, but Hubba did not want to miss out.  He committed us to three Lug Boxes... one more than last year.... at 18 pounds each, I was faced with putting up 54 pounds of peaches before they got too ripe.

We went over on the ATV and strapped the boxes to the front to get them home last Friday.  A few were consumed before we even got to the door and I've been processing peaches in most of my spare time ever since.

I decided to not use spices in the butter this year.  Last year's peach butter didn't taste much different from the apple butter.  So this year's was made with only peaches, water and sugar, no spices.  It's yummy.

The jam I make uses honey instead of sugar and is soooo delicious.  I thought about entering it in the county fair this year, but missed the deadline by a couple of weeks.  Note made for next year... perhaps this is Blue Ribbon Jam?  ;-)

My dad's wife has fond memories of Pickled Peaches from her childhood, so I thought I'd give those a try... All I can say is, "How did I not know these were so delicious?"  I made two batches.

The last batch of peaches were made into Peachsauce.  Since we like Applesauce so much we thought it might be fun to do the same thing with peaches.  I used a Peach Butter recipe, with a little less sugar and did not cook it as long.

So again, with 50% more peaches than last year, I still did not have enough for freezing or a simple hot pack.  I guess we'll be having 4 Lug Boxes next year.  ;-)