The Golden Queen peach tree in our orchard here at Struan Farm decided to fruit this year, big time. For once the birds have behaved themselves. I suspect they gorged sufficiently on nectarines, and there are enough apples for everyone. So they've left Golden Queen to us.
We love eating juicy, fresh organic peaches, but with apples coming as well there's only so much fresh fruit one can eat each day. And while I'm an aspiring bottler, my current repertoire (and skills) are limited to jams, chutneys and pickled things. I feel secure with them in the knowledge it's very hard to poison anyone. You can tell easily if something's off. I bottled plums last year but was a bit scared to use them after all that.
So my motto with surplus from the garden and orchard remains: come up with something that can be frozen (or made into jam, chutney and pickled things). Particularly now that I have a much larger freezer. And I've learned today that it's very easy to freeze fresh peaches!
Peaches are scored with an "x" on the bottom, blanched in boiling water for one minute, and put into an ice bath before peeling and slicing. I then put mine into a plastic container and filled it to 1/2 inch below the top with water before freezing. I had 12 to play with, but obviously could have put more into the container. You can read more about doing this along with options for sugar syrups here.
It couldn't have been easier. Exactly what I'm looking for this time of the year!
Comments