I know it might sound kinda gross but I promise you won’t believe your taste buds! We would have had a lot more peaches but Mr. Bear felt he should be entitled to most of them, since he tore the hornets nest out of the tree for us 😊. In the end we were lucky enough to get a few pans for ourselves. This same tree produced 8 bushel 4 years ago.
We were working at that time, not on the farm and not canning. I could just cry looking back. We just gave them to everyone we knew. I sure hope we have a good harvest this year. I have so many things I want to make.
I decided on canning some Peach Salsa Verde and Peach Jelly and I then I froze a couple of bags so I ended up with quite a bit. I started finding lots of information on turning your fruit and veggie scraps into delicious eats. There was no reason why I shouldn't give some of them a go. I really didn't think there would be enough flavor but I had nothing to lose as they were going straight to the compost bin either way. I saved all my peach skins and pits as I continued my way thru learning new canning skills and once I had all my (scraps) I was ready.
Instructions:
Dump all of your Peach scraps into a pot and add water just until you can see it, no need to bring all the way above the peaches. Turn the temperature to high and bring to a good boil, then turn it down to medium and simmer for about 45 minutes.
While the scraps are simmering, Sanitize your jars and put them in the oven on the lowest setting. They need to be real hot or they will not seal. I put the lids in a saucepan and bring that to a boil also.
Using a strainer or cheese cloth, go ahead and pour the juices into a measuring bowl. You want to keep the pits and the skins out.
This part went to the compost bin.
Check the measurement of how much juice you ended up with and transfer that to a clean pot and turn on Medium Heat. Add twice as much sugar as juice you had. This sounds like a bunch I know, but it is syrup and it is supposed to be sweet. I had 4 cups of juice so I added 8 cups of sugar. Stir this really good until the sugar all dissolves.
You will want to set a towel on your counter where you plan to fill your jars. Remove a jar from the oven and using a funnel, ladle or scoop your syrup out with a measuring cup into the hot jar. Once you have filled the jar I used a fork to get a lid out the boiling water and layed it on the jar and screwed on the ring. Repeat until all your syrup has been moved to jars. In the next 12 hours, all of your jars should be sealed.
I swear this is the best kept secret ever. Or maybe I am just late in the game and had never heard of it before. This recipe turned out perfect for us and is another item that is great for gifts. I just need to get busy and learn how to make pretty labels.
All that is left is to find out who is making the pancakes or French toast.
Notes:
I halved my scraps and did two batches, in case I screwed up the first one :)
I added 2 Large cinnamon sticks and a vanilla bean to my second batch of syrup. (DELISH)
If you don't use the recommended amount of sugar, yours will be real runny. Ask me how I know!
I did this with Apple Peels Too! I know, right? You're welcome!
This is a whole new World for me and I am Loving It! I hope if this is a newsflash you will give it a try! Let me know if you have success with other scraps :)