Peaches are God’s gift to the Earth, and it is finally August! They are my absolute favorite fruit, and I refuse to eat any others than in season, Utah peaches. The one exception to that is frozen, Utah peaches (say, in the middle of January). I buy my peaches by the box, and never at the store. I prefer to go straight to the farmer. My favorite farm to buy them from is in Orem on 400 S and about 250 W. I discovered them last year, while on a ReStore run, and have been stalking them since the end of July of this year. The farmer is very kind and added extra peaches to my box, which was only $18!
To freeze peaches, you need a few supplies: a big pot of water, filled half way, snack size bags, quart size freezer bags, a sharpie, a colander or large plastic bowl, a draining spoon, and a knife. You will, also, need free stone peaches. Free stone means that the peach will come right off the pit without much effort on your part. This is essential for preserving, so that you can save your sanity.
First, clean your sink. Do your dishes, and scrub all the gunk off the walls of your sink. You need this area to be clean, because your peaches will be down in there.
Second, boil that big pot of water.
Third, while the water is coming to a boil, use your sharpie to label the quart size bags, “Peaches” and the date.
Fourth, once the water has come to a boil. Add as many peaches as you can. Boil for 30 seconds. Set your timer, so you get it right. Then pull the peaches out using the spoon, and put them in the colander or plastic bowl. Rinse the peaches in cold water, to stop them from cooking any more.
Fifth, get a snack sized bag ready to be filled. Remove the skin of a peach, which should just rub off. Cut the peach in half. Remove the pit, and cut the peach into eight pieces. Put all eight pieces in the snack sized bag, seal, and put in a quart sized bag.
Sixth, once there are four snack sized bags in one quart sized bag, seal the quart sized bag, and place it in the freezer.
Tips: If skins on your peaches don’t instantly rub off, they are probably under ripe, or not the kind of peaches that do that. Either way, you can peel the peaches with your knife. If you wait an extra day or two, they may ripen up enough to rub the skins off.
If you can’t fit a whole peach in a snack sized bag, simply remove one slice and put it in the next bag.
Why the snack sized bags?
Two reasons, freezer bags aren’t always perfect, and double bagging fixes that. It keeps the peaches from getting freezer burned. Second, the snack sized bag makes it easy to portion control. When you pull out one snack sized bag, that is one peach, and probably enough for one person, depending on what you will do with it.
Spelt is a grain, very similar to flour, but it behaves slightly different. It has gluten, so it will hold things together, but it doesn’t keep things in a nice, tidy package. I experimented with Spelt today by making pancakes for breakfast. When I got it right, they looked amazing and were delicious. The first two attempts, however, produced flat pancakes, that nobody has wanted to try so far. Those two were just Spelt. With mouths to feed, I gave up on my Spelt experimenting, and added some whole wheat flour. The results were great. Still mostly Spelt, with a bit of flour, the pancakes held a perfectly round shape and fluffed up nicely. I cut up a peach for topping, and put some butter, honey, and applesauce on the table as well.
