Evidently, houseguest season has descended upon our apartment.
First, it was Ka-Hay, staying two nights as she moves back to Canada after 3.5 years overseas. Even though she'll be in Vancouver, I am so excited to have her back "home"! She was jetlagged and busy, so no photos of the visit, but she's threatened to be back later this month for a longer stay, and has taken advantage of our baggage storage services until then.
Next up, Holland was here for a week. She had some of her own things to do, but there was still lots of time to do stuff together. We used to live together, in an apartment quite close to here, so it was nice to hang out with her in our old 'hood. We got in a nice bike ride to the Spit, made some yummy meals, went to St Lawrence market, and went saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (which, was awesome).
One of our activities was canning! I loved home-canned peaches, but it's hard to find the time to do it. Luckily, the rainy holiday Monday provided just plenty of time in which I didn't mind being indoors. We started on Saturday with a trip to St Lawrence market, where I bought 9 baskets of peaches and we brought them home on the bike trailer. It must have been quite the sight! We bought them a few days early since I found they often need a day or two to ripen enough for canning. I thought I got a deal on the peaches because I bought so many, but then saw them for even cheaper at my local grocery store (Fiesta Farms ftw)! I also picked up 24 empty jars from a co-worker, using the bike and trailer.
On Monday, I realized we didn't have a pot big enough to do the canning in. I was a bit tired of the massive bike errands, so I used Autoshare for this one, which turned out to be a great decision - my large stock pot, stored at my old house, was still too short, so I had to make another stop across town at Canadian Tire (thankfully open) to get a bigger one. It was either that, or smaller jars, but my old stock pot is nearing the end of its life, so I was glad to get a replacement.
We finally set up the assembly line around 1pm. We started with Holland boiling the peaches briefly to skin them, and then I would pit and cut them. I cannot stress the importance of freestone peaches! I bought clingstone (by accident) one year, and it was such a pain in the ass...
Once we'd done 3 baskets, and had a sufficiently large bowl of peach slices, we made a syrup. I wanted to hot-pack them, so we boiled the peaches in the syrup, and packed it all into jars. The real rate limiting step in the process was the canning - we could only fit 4 jars into the pot at a time, and you had to bring the (large amount of) water to a boil before letting it boil for 25min. But once the first batch was boiling away, we got back the the prep work. We had 6 more boxes to get through!
We certainly found a good groove to get the work done in, and while it was tiring to be on my feet for so long, it was fun and felt productive. All in, it took 6.5 hours, from the first blanched peach until the last canning batch was complete. We needed less than 14L of syrup (useful to remember, since at one point, I thought we may run out, so I made a small batch to have at the ready), and those nine 3L baskets filled 23 jars - mostly quart, a couple of pints, and a few a bit bigger.
Unfortunately, one didn't seal properly, so we had to eat it the next day! ... and it was delicious!
1 comment:
you realize that by posting this, you will now have to share them? hahaha, joking. maybe. did you have a recipe, or do you just know? also, were you boiling the jars with the peaches inside them already? weird, my mom does it the other way around, boils the jars first, lets them cool open end down on a clean tea towel, and then fills them. if your method doesn't work though let me know, and i'll come over with a spoon to help you sort out the problem. that's super cool that you make preserves, i wish i was organized enough to do it. i also wish that you could can over winter when i actually have time, alas, things do not work like that.
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