How to Make Beautiful Home Canned Peaches | The Homestead Wife

Well, this week I did peaches!! My year's supply of peaches is 7 canner loads, which makes 49 quarts and uses most of a bushel of peaches (about 100 pounds.) I put the last little bits in jam or peach butter and also make jelly from the skins. But this video is just a demo of one canner load of seven quarts, which stores about 35 medium sized peaches or 14 pounds of peaches.
If you haven't canned peaches before, you may want to do just one or two jars to make sure you like what you're making. If you don't like the sugar syrup, try canning in water or fruit juice or mild honey syrup. (Honey has a very strong taste.) You can use any of these to make up 8-9 cups of cooking liquid. We use a medium sugar syrup because it reminds me of my childhood.
:)
You'll need:
7 quart jars with rings and new or reusable lids
35 medium sized peaches or 14 pounds of peaches
8-9 cups cooking liquid (I use 3 cups of sugar, 6 cups of water)
slotted spoon and measuring cup or ladle for filling jars
cloth for wiping rims
all the pots you own
hot water bath canner
there are a number of little gadgets that help with canning. The magnet isn't essential but the jar lifter really is, and the funnel also is very helpful. If you don't have a funnel, put a towel on your surface and put the rings on your jars before you fill them, that helps to keep the rims clean.
My hot pack process (works best with freestone peaches):
--Pick out your best peaches. Wash well, but don't leave too long sitting in water.
--Score with a paring knife along natural seams of peach, all the way down to the pit but not off the pit.
--Blanch in groups of 5, 60 seconds in boiling water, then immediately into cold water or better yet ice water
--Gently twist to get quarters off the pits, remove skins and any bad spots, drop into cooking liquid.
--Cook prepared quarters in batches of 10-12 peaches at a time, 3 minutes at a boil (5 minutes if you're doing halves).
--Fill jars to 1/2 inch headspace, first with peach quarters then with cooking liquid.
--Use a spatula to squish out air bubbles and get your peaches packed in right.
--Add a little more liquid if necessary.
--Clean rims with cloth or a paper towel.
--Put on lids and rings finger tight.
--Put jars in canner, with at least 1 inch liquid over the tops.
--Bring canner water to a boil and put on lid, start timer when the water is boiling.
--One more tip: when your timer goes off, I suggest that you turn off the heat under the canner and let it sit five minutes before removing jars. This helps prevent losing liquid from the jars, which sometimes happens.
--Check your seals. Any jars that haven't sealed should go in the fridge or in tonight's peach cobbler.
--When the sealed jars are cooled, remove rings, mark with the date and store!
Peaches can be processed in a hot water bath canner.
Hot pack: 20 minutes for pints, 25 minutes for quarts (goes higher for elevation, at our place we do 30 minutes)
Raw pack: 25 minutes for pints, 30 minutes for quarts (goes higher for elevation)
Enjoy!