Stocking the Hollow's Pantry

This summer I have decided to try canning. First up...peaches! Meems and I decided to purchase vouchers from the Clemson Organic Farmers Market earlier this year and since the market opened a little over three weeks ago, we have been frequent visitors. Two weeks ago we purchased a basket full of peaches for $25. The basket yielded 66 peaches! So after setting a few aside to eat and a few for a peach cobbler, I decided to can the rest.

Although I have made strawberry jam, I've never canned fruits or veggies. To prepare myself, I borrowed Meems's book "Stocking Up" and scoured the Internet. The first round I decided to can the peaches using the raw pack method with a honey syrup (mentioned in "Stocking Up"). The second round I decided to try the hot pack method with a medium sugar syrup.
After finishing up the two rounds, I did make several notes.

• I definitely prefer the hot pack/sugar syrup method when canning. I wonder which we will prefer when consuming...???
• The peaches purchased were tree ripened, but not very soft. In the future, I'll leave them out on the counter, stacked no more than two peaches high, until the peaches soften. This makes the "easy peel method" work like a breeze!
• Each quart container holds five to six large peaches. To can one round (four to five quarts), I'll need roughly 1 1/2 quantities of the medium syrup.
• Save the peels to make peach jelly, but toss the pits. The pits contain cyanide! It is perfectly fine to store the peels in fridge in a large bowl covered with plastic wrap until I'm ready to make the jelly juice.

The peach jelly was easy to make. The peels left over from canning yielded enough juice to make two batches of jelly. I made one batch now (which yielded 11 jelly jars) and froze the extra in canning jars for a future batch. I'm looking forward to trying the jelly on toast and pork chops!

And so continues the process of stocking our pantry! Next up...tomatoes and tomato paste...