Moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches!
Last Friday I bought a 25 lb box of New Haven peaches for $20 at our local Beebe Farms. That’s $.80/lb for a pesticide-free, locally grown and perfectly ripe box of opportunity.
Said box looked smaller at the farm than it did on my kitchen counter. I didn’t keep a specific count, but I used at least 60 peaches in the recipes I made, not counting the ones we ate all week-long as snacks.
It was a lot of peaches.
A week later, I have conquered the peaches. Every. Single. One. Yes, I know Dana and I often make silly things into a game where there are winners and losers. Everyone has a different approach to giant boxes of fruit in their lives. This is mine.
And trust me when I tell you, I SCHOOLED those peaches.
First I made a massive cobbler from Suellen Anderson at food.com for an awesome river party. There were 12 of us. We ate it all.
Then I made 10 half pints of jam. I do not skin my peaches or use pectin. I just boil and boil until the jam doesn’t run off the back of a cold spoon.
Then I found this recipe for Peaches N Cream bars from Sally’s Baking Addiction. I made a double batch (of course) and the middle didn’t set, so I would recommend sticking to the recipe.
Then I made popsicles for the kids. I threw six cut up peaches, vanilla greek yogurt, a tablespoon of lemon, a cup of almond milk and a teaspoon of vanilla into the blender.
With the last six peaches, I made some peach/vodka and peach/rum ice cubes, also in the blender. I used two cups blended peaches and 1 cup booze. After they freeze, I’ll pop them out into ziploc bags clearly labeled BOOZE and use them in iced tea.
Yum. But–I am DONE with peaches for the year.
The last month I have been knee-deep in cherry plums, peaches and sugar and snap peas, which all came ripe. Once they’ve been picked, they have to be handled directly. It’s overwhelming–and I only have a little ol’ garden.
How on earth did those pioneer women handle all the bounty from their farms in the three months of harvest? And the stress of knowing that if they missed it, come late winter, they’d be out of food. Gives a whole new meaning to “women’s work”.
Full Of Graces 
I think those women just did only food prep in the summer and nothing else. No vacations, no part-time job, and the kids helped in the gardens (note all the vignettes in kid’s stories about stealing away from the garden to climb a tree or go fishing…)
All that said, I grew up in a peach orchard and I love peaches — but only the home-grown local ones. And they aren’t ripe here yet. I hope I find a farm like you did…
They must have just rocked from July til November. I can’t even imagine.
Ha! I was reading too fast and missed a couple of words in your paragraph about popsicles the first time and saw it as “threw up peaches” at first!
And I totally feel you! There is a new farm represented at our local farmer’s market and I scored a 12lb box this past Saturday. Half of what I got last year, but still enough to keep me busy. I’ve got 5 half pints of jam sealed on my counter and some bourbon-vanilla peach butter doing its thing in the crockpot right now. I don’t know why I decided to make jam on the hottest day of the year, but it is highly satisfying to have those little jars lined up on the counter and hear the pop as they seal. 🙂
Hold on a second. Bourbon vanilla peach butter??? Where do I find that recipe?
Honestly, I googled the first time, so don’t remember the actual recipe I followed the first time. I tried to keep track of what I did this year, however, I forgot to measure the amount of peaches I used. I have a 6-quart slow-cooker and the peaches filled up about half (I only skinned and quartered them – no need for lots of chopping with the long cooking time). I added 1/2 cup bourbon (could probably use more, or add later because it isn’t as flavorful this time), 2 vanilla beans, 3 cinnamon sticks, 1/4c maple sugar, and 1c brown sugar (the peaches were rather tart this time). Oh, and a dash of salt. Other recipes call for other spices, but I love it with just the cinnamon! Cook in the crockpot for a long time (sorry, i didn’t measure this), leaving the lid off or crooked for part of the time so it can thicken, then process in a waterbath canner for 10 minutes.
So cook and then can. I’m going to try it. If I can bring myself to buy peaches, lol. Thanks!
Oh, forgot the blending part. I used an immersion blender to get the right consistency. Again, probably a personal preference thing, too!
WHY is it always the hottest week of the year? I have pickle cucumbers on the counter and no heart in me to fire up the stove.
And, thinking of the ladies back in the day – it is so hot and they wore so many clothes! I couldn’t imagine having to garden and cook in layers of petticoats and long-sleeve dresses! Though, my grandmother did make me wear a sunbonnet a few times when I helped her pick green beans as a child. I can see why Laura Ingalls would let it hang down her back as she played…