Millions of peaches... peaches for me.

I was at the grocery store today, and it was their regular 10% Family Day, where everyone gets 10% off everything (as opposed to Senior's Day).  I also had in my grubby little hands, a coupon saying that if I spent $125, I'd get 500 bonus points in their loyalty program.  I'm a sucker for bonus points.  I didn't need that much (in fact, I have been noticing that my grocery bills have been somewhat lower these days) so I figured I'd find something that was on sale and stock up.

What I found...  was a 20lb box of BC peaches.  Hmmm.  Husband likes canned peaches on his oatmeal for breakfast, and it never ceases to irritate me that once you open the can, you have to look for a container to put the rest of them into.  Having them in a jar means that you can leave open ones in the fridge, and use as much a you need.  I've never made canned peaches...  but I knew it wasn't hard.  I even had jars at home from my fantasies of making canned tomatoes (not gonna happen). 

So, after careful consideration, my sense of adventure won out and I found not only 500 bonus points (725 gets me $5 worth of groceries for free), but my project for Girl's naptime. 

The first thing you need to do is peel the peaches (apparently you don't NEED to, but I figured I'd try it the traditional way before doing something different.)  The easiest way to peel all soft, thin skinned fruits is to have a pot of boiling water and a bowl of icy water.  You pop the peaches into the boiling water for about 20 seconds and then into the cold water.  This will cause the skins to separate from the flsh, and they're easy to scrape off.

Once you have them all peeled, chop them into whatever sized pieces you want.  This proved to be annoying for me.  I think the problem was that the peaches were a little too ripe, and soft.  It worked out ok, but I would have liked cleaner cuts (more like the ones you get in the can).  Mine were all a bit fuzzy.  Since I knew these were mainly going on oatmeal, I went with bite-sized chunks.  I can never find them that way in the store, so Husband is forever cutting slices or halves.

I added some lemon juice at this point to keep them from oxidizing. (For this many I used 1 1/2 big lemons) Next, make a syrup.  You can pack them in juice, but I don't have a ready supply of peach juice, so I went for a light syrup. 

2 1/2 cups sugar

8 cups water

Simmer until all the sugar has melted and then I popped as many peaches in as would fit in the pot. I had heard that using the hot-pack method (where you heat the peaches) was the best, but if I hadn't done that, I could have just stuck the fresh peaches into the jars, and poured the syrup over. (Either one will work). Once they were warmed through, I used a slotted spoon and filled the jars with peach chunks, and then poured syrup over to fill the jar to 1/4 inch below the rim.

Clean off the rims of any dripped peach juice, and seal with lids and rings. 

Then it's into the canner (boiling water bath) for about 15-20 minutes.  You can use a normal pot of water, as long as the water covers the jars completely, but if you plan on doing any canning, a canner is a good investment.  They tend to be pretty cheap, and come with a rack to lift the jars in and out of the water.   I should point out though, that most cheap canners don't have a flat bottom, so they can't be used on flat, ceramic or induction ranges. (So, I'm glad I still have the old-style coil range).  You can buy canners that have flat bottoms, but they will cost more.  They will also be a lot prettier. 

Out of the 20lb box, I got 14-500mL jars of peach chunks.  So, since I already had jars, it worked out to about $1.75/jar.  I'm pretty sure a small can (380mL) costs more than that at the grocery store. They aren't going to win me any blue ribbons at any county fairs, but they'll do.