Peaches! Peaches! Peaches!!!

I bought 5 - 25 lb. boxes of peaches this week to can and make other things with and boy am I glad I did. These peaches were the best peaches I have had in years and no comparison to the ones I would buy in the store. When I let the boys eat the slices, juice runs down their arms and is all over their mouth. Incredible.

I made 3 batches of freezer jam using a different recipe each time and each batch is certainly different. Very yummy though. David and Evan ask to taste the jam that didn't make it in the freezer. One thing I did though was leave the skin on when I made the jam because I didn't want to take the time to peel the peaches. I don't mind the skin on peaches and it doesn't change anything with the jam either. It's how I'm making my jam from now on. I also used the blender for 2 batches and the potato masher for 1 batch and they worked great!

I froze several bags of sliced and halved peaches for future pies, cobblers, and other delicious treats.

I mainly wanted to can the peaches but never having done it except when I'd help my parents growing up, I had no idea what I was doing. My generous visiting teachers and another sister in the ward came over Friday night for a couple of hours and showed/helped me bottle 36 quarts. It was so much easier than I thought it would be and they were so much help. I opened one of the bottles and tasted them and aaaahhhh, it took me back to my childhood and the peaches my parents canned. Growing up I thought store bought canned peaches would taste better than the ones we canned at home and now after all these years of only having store bought peaches I can say home canned peaches take the cake!!! Thanks mom and dad for spending the money and taking the time to can fruit while we were growing up. I'd also like to thank them for letting us kids "help" with the process.

We have also been able to have sliced peaches ready for us to eat in the fridge for our meals or snacks. I do like peaches.

The fruit that is put away won't last us a year, but I feel that we're a little closer to food storage.