Plastic-free fruit? That's peachy.

On the first day of the plastic-free challenge, my friend, Donna, taught me how to make yogurt. This weekend, I learned how to can peaches.

For as long as I can remember, I've had a longstanding habit of stocking up on store-bought frozen fruit especially when there's a sale. Frozen fruit is perfect for eating straight out of the bag during hot summer days. In wintertime, I often experimented with adding different varieties of frozen fruit to hot oatmeal.

Image courtesy of http://store.naturalfarms.com/product.php?productid=18219

Alas, this frozen fruit habit is one that I've relinquished (somewhat reluctantly) because the fruit is packaged in plastic bags. Once these bags are torn open, they aren't useful and have to be thrown away or down-cycled -- that is, if one's municipality will include them in recycling collection.

This weekend, a friend named Mary Grace invited me to can peaches with her. I wasn't optimistic about my abilities. I'm not incompetent in in the kitchen but I'm not what I'd call confident either. Turns out, it was a lot of fun and not as difficult as I thought I might be.

Mary Grace made it easy by outlining the steps needed.  I've divided them into three sets of six steps to make it easy to show here:

PHASE ONE

1. Start by purchasing peaches with 'cling free pits'. (These are called freestone peaches. If you have pits that cling to the peach, you won't have much fun trying to prepare them for canning.) 
2. Wash your jars in hot soapy water, and check the rims of the jars you'll use for chips in the glass. If you have a jar with a chipped rim, don't use it: the lid won't seal on this jar.
3. In a medium sauce pan, boil water. Once the water is boiling, maintain a low boil. Dunk the peaches in this boiling water for 30 seconds. (Mary Grace said that some books will suggest 60 seconds, but in her experience, the peaches become too mushy when boiled this long.)  
4. Fill a bowl with cold water. After 30 seconds in boiling water, dunk peaches in the cold bath for another 30 seconds to loosen its skin.
5. Peel the skin with a paring knife, taking care not to remove the peach pulp with the skin.
6. Slice peaches into the desired size and place into jars. Add one peach pit to the bottom of each jar to maintain coloring. 

PHASE TWO 

1. Prepare as many jars as your canner rack will allow. (Mary Grace's allows for nine. See image in Phase Three.)
2. Make the sugar syrup. This is the base that is needed for preserving the peaches. We opted for a 'thin' syrup (2 cups sugar to every 4 cups of water) - see options below. Boil the sugar and water until the water is clear. Stir frequently to help the sugar dissolve.
3. Add the syrup to the jars using a funnel. (Mary Grace has a glass funnel, which her husband, Dan, found at an antique store. This is nice because you can see through the glass as the jar is filled. Most funnels are made of plastic today.) Fill to within one half-inch from the rim to cover the peaches.
4. Wipe the rims free of any sticky syrup.
5. Boil the lids to sterilize them.
6. Put the lids on the jars immediately after they're boiled.

Sugar recipe options:

From Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 10th Edition

 PHASE THREE

1. Apply rings to lids.
2. Place on rack in canner with a canning tong. 
3. Keep jars hot from step #2 above before placing them on the canner rack. A distinct 'pop' means a jar has cracked, which happened to one of ours. The bottom had fallen out either because the jar was too cool when placed on the rack, or perhaps because it was an older jar that had been used for canning many times before. (They don't last forever.)
4. Cover the canner with a lid and boil the jars for 25 minutes.  
5. Remove hot jars from canner with canning tong and set on a countertop to cool. Placing a towel underneath will collect any condensation.
6. Voila! Caned peaches. 

I thought I would find the process to be a little tedious, but I discovered it was a great way to spend an afternoon. Not only did we do something productive in just a few hours, it was a fun way to catch up with Mary Grace whom I hadn't seen in a long while. 

Remember as a kid trying to remove a tangerine or orange peel all in one piece? I got the same thrill from removing large pieces of peach skin at once.

My thrill was clearly novice, however, compared to Mary Grace's pantry. This is the mark of a master food preserver. 

I tasted some of the veggies that she's pickled (clockwise from top left): cucumber relish, dilly beans, beets, corn relish, and 'bread and butter pickles'. All were delicious! 

She also dries onions and garlic from the garden, which - in addition to adding flavor to her and Dan's winter - makes their porch beautiful in summer:

 

While canning takes time and some special equipment (a canning rack and pot, tongs, lids with seals, mason jars, etc.), it's a great way to avoid disposable products. 

It's also a great way to connect with friends. I can't imagine I'd have as much fun trying to do it alone.  When doing it with others, one person can be quick-boiling and cold-soaking the peaches while the other is removing the skin, for example, all the while chatting about the meaning of life. (It helps to have friends like Mary Grace for that!)