Just Peachy

Canning season is here, and things are just peachy in the farmhouse kitchen. Canning peaches feels a lot like capturing summer in a jar. There’s nothing like opening a cheerful looking jar of peaches on a cold
winter morning to enjoy with breakfast. They’re also good to take along on off-season camping trips as a special treat.

We decided to pick up our peaches on the way home from a family reunion up in Eastern Washington last weekend, and stopped at a roadside farm stand in Peshastin with an “Organic” sign, and flats of peaches and nectarines sitting out on tables. Since peaches are better suited to grow in Eastern Washington than the Willamette Valley, the fruit and the prices were a little nicer.  They had options of different sizes, so we picked the smallest ones for canning. It was fun chatting with the farmer and heading off with our back seat full of peaches on the drive home. My mom’s family comes from the Yakima Valley, and home canned Eastern Washington peaches are a long standing tradition I am happy to carry on.

I’ve been used to buying “seconds” peaches from our local farms because of the discounted price, but they were always a bit dinged up and required more work trimming off the bruised parts. These peaches were in tip-top shape, and much easier to blanch and slice.

It is deeply satisfying seeing jars of canned goods cooling on the back porch, and even more satisfying to see the cellar shelves filling back up again. Over the next few weeks, we will be busy preserving summer’s bounty, and making sure our winter is just as peachy.