Canning Peaches

Have you ever had a Utah peach? They are super yummy! Peaches from the store just don't match a fresh picked Utah peach. We were driving to Wal Mart and saw a guy on the side of the road selling Utah Peaches! We pulled over and the guy let us try a slice of one and we were sold! I said we should just buy half a box and even then we couldn't eat them all. BJ said they were worth getting a whole box and we should just can them. I have never canned anything before and had no idea where to even begin. I first called my sister in law Camille to see if she wanted to do it with me then I called my mother in law for a step by step on what I needed and what to do.

I went and bought some Ball jars (I couldn't bring myself to buy the Kerr ones. I had to have Ball which tend to be more expensive but we found a 15% off canning supply sale so I got my Ball jars for the same price as Kerr!) I also got the jar lifter upper, magnetic lid grabber, and a funnel. Helen suggested I get a steam canner but I wasn't feeling spending a lot for only being able to can one box of peaches. I looked up how to do water bath canning and instead buying the cool pot I just used my biggest pot and my steaming pan from my pressure cooker.

BJ and Matt went over to Camille's grandmothers house to do some work and Camille came over to help me can. She never had done peaches before so we just followed what Helen told me and what the internet said. Rylee slept for the first half so we were able to wash all the jars (24 pint jars) and peal all the skins off. Most of the skins came off in the boiling water so it went pretty fast. We made the syrup really light. It said 3 cups of sugar to 6 cups of water for light but I was low on sugar and didn't want to go to the store so I did 2 cups of sugar to 8 cups of water. The peaches were already sweet so it didn't need to much sweetener. Once we canned all the peaches I spent the rest of the day putting 4 jars at a time in my pot and doing the water bath.

Thankfully it was a success! 6 of them didn't seal so I put them in the fridge to eat and they ended up sealing up just fine. The peaches are so tasty! I love that I have canned food in my pantry and I canned them! Maybe next summer I'll be able to do make my own jam! That would be so sweet!!