Monday boxes and boxes of fresh fruit arrived in our living room. We arranged a bulk fruit shipment and had 155 boxes to deal with. Luckily most of them were gone by the end of the day.

7 were mine however–2 peaches, 2 gala apples, 1 nectarine and 2 barlett pears. The pears are holding well and I should have a couple days before I have to can them. The apples are doing better but I put a bunch of them in the frig to try and prolong them a bit, apples are a favorite treat of the children. Maybe next week I’ll try some apple sauce or apple butter.

Last night though it was time to do peaches. Most of them were perfect ripeness of near perfect.

I set up a comfortable work station on the coffee table with a tray of blanched peaches (to remove the skins), hot, just washed jars–though they cooled pretty quickly–a bowl for skins and pits, a cutting board and glass of water to stay hydrated. Then I packed jars and watched, “Camp Rock” with the children. I am not enthused about Avril’s decision to be a rock star when she gets older. She insists that she wants to be married and a rock star, her brother said, “you can’t be married and be a rock star, you won’t have time.” I honestly don’t know where he picks some of this stuff up. Anyway it was more or less relaxing.

Within and hour I had 13 quarts ready to go in the canner.

After pealing, cutting and packing I put 2 TBSP of honey in each jar, boiled a big pot of water and poured the water over the peaches and honey making a kind of syrup. Then on with the lids and into the canner for 25 minutes.

I was planning on canning more but Proeun loves peaches for fresh eating so I had to save some for him. Some of those went in the fridge too. I can’t wait to have a walk-in cooler! We could have fresh fruit most of the winter with proper refrigeration. In any case my goal is completed with peaches. I plan to do up 24 quarts of pears. The nectarines were for fresh eating but I am not keeping up with them so I am looking for a nectarine salsa type recipe today. I did a similar raw pack with the nectarines last year but didn’t like them as well as the peaches. Then I’ll do something with the apples, maybe a little sauce, butter and baking apples.

I still only have 8 quarts of tomato sauce and 18 pints of diced tomatoes, mostly the weather, and plants but also a little bit of my time. Oh well at least we will have some fruit.