Canning peaches

My mother-in-law is now talking about picking peaches and bringing us some fruit to preserve. Gayle did some research and some family chatting and compiled her notes on peaches. But, the odd thing is, both my mother-in-law's family, my mother-in-law's mother-in-law's family and Gayle's family always included a peach pit in every quart. Why? Did it change the flavor or the acidity?  Or was it mere food superstition?

FROM GAYLE:

I don't remember peaches being this much work1 I guess it's because there was many people. Sharon said she had to dip and skin them.

Peaches
From my Ball Book c 1974

It starts with the whole check, wash and heat the jars routine.

Sort wash & drain enough firm ripe peaches for one canner load. Fill water bath canner half full with hot water. Put canner on to heat. Prepare sugar syrup. (i'm sure mom made the light.)

Place peaches in wire baket or cheesecloth. Dip peaches into boiling water 1/2 to 1 minute to loosen skins. Dip into cold water. Drain.

Cut peaches in half, pit and peel. (You can slice, that's what mom did.) Scrape cavities to remove pink and red fibers because they might turn ugly brown in processing. Pack peaches into hot jars, cavity side down, layers overlapping. Leave 1/2 inch head space

Cover peaches with boiling hot syrup leaving 1.2 in headspace. It will take 1-1.5 cups syrup for each quart jar.

Run table knife gently between fruit and jar to release air bubbles. Add more syrup if needed

Wipe top and threads. Put on lid and band...tighly

Place in canner with hot water (not boiling). Water should cover 1 to 2 inches.

Process pints 25 minutes or Quarts 30 minutes after boiling

Let cool 12 hours before removing bands, checking for seal, and storing.

SYRUP
Light syrup
2 cups of sugar to 1 qt of water, yield is 5 cups.

Medium syrup
3 cups of sugar to 1 qt of water, yield is 5 cups.

Heavy syrup
4.25 cups of sugar to 1 qt of water, yield is 5 cups.

Measure sugar and liquid (either water or fruit juice) into saucepan. Cook until sugar dissolves. Keep syrup hot until needed, but do not let it boil down. Usually 1-1.5 cups of syrup are needed for each quart of fruit.

Using the sun

Although I don't have the right ingredients, and we all know I never do, I decided to harness the power of the sun and make new pickles. Gayle did some research and sent her mom's recipe, which I posted here.

We don't have pickle cukes, but since we have some from the farmers market and they are super fresh and crisp. I plan on eating these later today or tomorrow so I'm not worried about them getting soggy.

While looking in the basement for my spare butter dishes, I found one of those really big jars which I washed out and started a batch of sun tea in.

I went out to the garage and retrieved my Ball jars, the pint sized ones. Washed one and put some garlic, probably too much, and a big handful of dill from the garden in the bottom. Added salt. Had the child fill it with cucumber slices and tossed in some carrot sticks.

Poured in some apple cider vinegar, filled the rest of the jar with water, layered the lids on, shook it well, and put it in the sun beside the tea.

Now, we wait.