What would you do with 80 lbs. of Peaches?

When Emma and I started to look into our food, the biggest step we knew we

could take was knowing where our food came from. And while we are growing our skills, we aren't able to create a whole orchard or a 1/2-acre garden in once season. A big step we took when trying to pivot our food supply was finding a cleaner and more sustainable option for food we love to have around the house. And fruit is a great place to start especially with the boys running around!

Heading into the summer, we were looking into some local orchards and stumbled upon this company "My Fruit Truck" and we knew we had to give it a try. They are dedicated in bringing fruit straight from the orchard all over the United States. We were able to get Georgia peaches for $1 per pound and they were delivered right to our neighboring town. While they partner with smaller, family run orchards who are unable to bear the cost of the organic label, they are non-GMO and meet the requirements of organic produce and are grown without the use of pesticides and Apeel. So of course, we bought 80 lbs. and that leads us to today- What would you do with 80lbs of peaches?

I definitely bit off more than I could chew...

My saving grace with these peaches was that they weren't exactly ripe yet. I had planned on some jams and a ton of sliced peaches as they were Tony's favorite fruit, and they kids would eat them up! It took about 4-5 days until the peaches were ripe enough to work with, so I made my list of recipes, and got to work.

I did a little experiment where I compared how easy it would be if I left the pit in blanched then blanched and peeled and with pitting before pealing. I found it easier to remove the pit with a clean pair of pliers, score the bottom of the peach in a "X", drop into boiling water for 30 seconds, then blanch it into cold for a couple minutes. From there, the skin would peel right off, and I could use my paring knife to slice them in into segments.

I would do a couple small batches as they were ripening and that's what gave the sliced peaches. After 5 days, they were getting over ripe and those turned into the jams really well. Overall, I ended up with the following:

• 12 quarts of Peaches in Medium Syrup

• 16 pints of Peach BBQ Sauce

• 9 pints of Cinnamon Peach Jam

• 9 pints of Peach Jam

• 9 1/2 pints of Jalapeno Peach Jam-

• 14 1/2 pints of Peach, Maple, and Whiskey Chutney

• 8 quarts of Peach Syrup

I definitely have some work to do with our recipes, and I will share those as I finalize them so you can make them at home.

As fun as it was to take these gorgeous pieces of fruit and preserve them for the upcoming months, the most exciting thing that I learned from this adventure was the ability to grow a peach tree from a pit. Seeing as I held onto 40 pits, I am very excited for this experiment!

While it is important to grow verities of plants in their native habits, I am not sure of the variety we have and how they will fare in our climate however peaches are a cold tolerant fruit, so I am fairly certain we have a chance! They do require a stratification period in order to sprout so we will be planting some in pots and letting them winterize. I will certainly post updates as we start our fruit nursery.

Emmett thought the peaches were for him!

I am excited to hear what you think! What are your favorite peach recipes? Would you order from My Fruit Truck? What fruit should we get next time?

Happy Peach Season!