Peach-a-Palooza

We got peaches folks. Brought to you by E&B Farmers.

Double what's in the picture and that is how many we actually had.  

From a miniature peach tree that is about as high as my waist.

As a side note, we also had green onions that were about as tall as the peach tree. Some were over an inch in diameter. I had to cut off over a foot of the green part so they would fit in the veggie drawer. I felt bad about that but you can only use so much scallions. I made a green onion dip that was oh-so-good.  Eric has been enjoying cherry tomatoes, and I have been using the fresh basil and oregano.

Anyways, we have eaten a few peaches. (Well, Eric has...I don't care to bite into fuzzy fruit.) We have also given some away to friends. And we still had more than we could handle.  Last year, we didn't quite have this many even though we had more than we could eat before they spoiled. So we made frozen treats - peach sorbet, peach custard. And we also had about a half gallon of peach puree left over that stayed good throughout the year. I just made some more peach custard again about 3 weeks ago. Delicious.

I tried some different things this year. All of them including peeling, pitting and slicing the peaches. 

To make the peeling easier, I first scalded the peaches and then put them in an ice bath.

Then I peeled and pitted and sliced.  It's a little dangerous - they can be quite slippery. I don't know why there are 3 knives. I only used the one in the bottom corner of the picture.

I was up to my elbows in peaches. 

For starters, I made a peach cake. By Ina Garten. God bless her.

Of course I would forget to take a picture of mine so I copied this photo from 

Stirring the Pot's web page. Which also has the recipe. ;)

I froze some sliced peaches to use later on. Another peach cake maybe. 

And made peach jam.

And canned it. I used the peelings to make peach honey which I also canned. Bonus.

I am so glad to not have wasted all of that wonderful fruit!

Pomegranates at the end of the summer!