Rapid Cannning Trick

Step 1: Put out a call on Facebook that you are canning. Tell friends you will teach them. Step 2: Offer to entertain their kids with paper mache when friends respond.

Step 3: Breathe deeply as chaos ensues when friends and kids come over.

Step 4: Enjoy the chatting as you work together to peel and slice ~30 pounds of peaches.

Step 5: Give your friends canning confidence as they help fill jars with peach pieces and make jam from the scraps.

Step 6: Relax as you realize that you just canned in a third of the time as normal. Think about sharing a jar or two with the friends who helped you.

Now, who would like to help mop the floor?

PS. Intrigued by the glass peaches pictured? They are part of the Franklin Park Conservatory's Hungry Planet exhibit opening August 20.

Home Canning Peach Pieces

As much as I love canning, I get a little bored with doing the same old things. Faced with 43 pounds of peaches to process, I decided to try something new: canning peach pieces. There are many methods to can peach pieces, including cold and hot pack, with syrup, juice, or water. I sought out the advice of the Ball Canning Book, the National Center for Home Food Preservation and PickYourOwn.org. The combined wisdom suggests that hot packing in at least a very light syrup does the best job of preserving the texture of the peaches.

My Method

1) Blanche peaches in boiling water and shock in ice water to loosen skins.

2) Remove skins.

3) Slice peach in half, remove pit (get a freestone variety or this is nearly impossible), and slice each half into six slices.

4) Place the slices in a large pot. Any pieces that do not hold together for nicely formed slices go in a smaller pot for making into peach jam.

5) Make a very light syrup of 1 cup sugar to 8 cups water by gently heating to dissolve the sugar into the water.

6) Pour syrup over peaches and heat to a gentle boil.  Hold at boiling for 5 minutes.

7) Ladle peach pieces into sterilized pint jars. Use a knife to gently stir and release air bubbles. Pour syrup over top, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.

8 ) Secure sterilized two piece lids on jars and place in a boiling water bath. Process for 20 minutes.

9) Admire the jars.

10) The following day, remove the rings. Wipe the residual sticky-ness from the jars with a warm wet cloth and label each lid with the product and date. Store in a cool, dark place until use.

Waste Not, Want Not

As I noted, any mushy bits or tiny pieces were reserved for peach jam. I added whole crushed allspice, cinnamon stick, and cloves in a sachet to my standard Pomona's peach jam recipe.

When I ran out of space in the canner and time in my afternoon, I scooped out remaining peach pieces and made them into cobbler.

Peach juice in light syrup was left. There was no way I could toss the beautiful nectar so I reheated it and canned some in pint jars the next day. Three pints went straight into the fridge for Momo Sake drinks.

Quantity

I reserved approximately 10 pounds of peaches we picked at Branstool for fresh eating. With the remaining 33 pounds, about 2.5 pecks, I ended up with:

12 pints pieces 7 half pints jam 6 pints nectar 6 cups leftover pieces (i.e. I could have canned 3 more pints if I had the time and space)

Using Canned Peaches

We don't buy canned peaches because what's available in the grocery does not remotely resemble the fruit I know and love. I plan to use what I made myself in smoothies, poured over yogurt and as an addition to fruit desserts. Though the kitchen was outrageously sticky at the end of the peach canning extravaganza, I know I will not regret the mess in deep winter when I taste summer by simply opening a jar. Have you canned peaches at home? How do you do it?

Tomorrow, I will conclude Peach Week by sharing my trick for canning peaches in record time and five songs to enjoy while doing so.

Pick Peaches at Branstool Orchard {Farm Profile}

'Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches...' When picking peaches, The Presidents of the United States song inevitably replays itself in the minds of those of us of a certain age. After visiting Branstool Orchards near Utica, Ohio, visitors of any age can't help but end up with a lot of peaches to eat.

Branstool is an easy one hour drive from central Columbus. Their large showroom is surrounded by an equally large parking lot. Prepared goods are displayed alongside pre-picked homegrown fruit.

Visitors are encouraged to enjoy the scenic hilly farm and pick their own peaches. Owner Marshall or another knowledgeable farm stand worker shares baskets and the location of the ripe peaces at the show room. Branstool also offers wagons to carry children and full peach baskets on the walk back from the orchard.

The red star peach crop available on August 1 was a five minute walk down and back up a hill past a cattail lined pond. The orchard does not offer drive-up picking.

The fifteen to twenty foot trees are filled with peaches. With no ladders available, children and adults alike climb the strong twisted trunks to reach sun ripened fruit on tall branches. It is a cinch to fill a 1 peck box, approximately 14 pounds, in fifteen minutes.

Branstool charges $1/pound of u-pick peaches. At the New Albany Farmers Market in June, they offered a peck box at $15, nearly the same price as u-pick. Our u-pick peaches stayed fresh for over a week at room temperature while the market peaches did not fare as well.

Orchardist Marshall shared that he does not spray trees with insecticides but does use fungicide as necessary to keep peaches from rotting before they are ripe. A diversity of flowers, birds, and insects clearly make their home on the farm, a sign that chemicals are not over-used.

With 25 varieties of peaches and 30 varieties of apples planted, there is plenty of picking yet to come at Branstool. Call ahead to confirm what varieties are available on a given day.  Combine your visit with a trip to Velvet Ice Cream's Ye Olde Mill a mere 5 miles away for an easy Ohio food adventure.

This Branstool Orchard review is part of Peach Week at Hounds in the Kitchen. Use fresh peaches to make our peach cobbler recipe or the juice for the Momo Sake cocktail. Thursday and Friday's posts will be all about canning.

Peach Cobbler {Recipe}

It's Peach Week at Hounds in the Kitchen! See Monday's introduction with a peach cocktail recipe and follow the whole week for preserving tips and a pick your own farm review. Truth be told, I would rather eat fresh fruit than most desserts.

But when I ran out of jars when canning peach pieces, I was left with the perfect beginning to a baked dessert: a pile of juicy, fresh, peeled and sliced peaches.

I piled the peach slices into a pan, topped with sweet buttermilk biscuit dough and baked it to make a cobbler. We ran out of time to eat the cobbler warm and instead enjoyed it as a snack and breakfast straight from the fridge.

NB: Wikipedia has a fascinating article on the definition of cobbler and other cooked fruit with toppings, including brown betty, crisp, crumble, buckle, etc.

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Fruit Cobbler biscuit topping adapted from Betty Crocker New Cookbook 7th edition Makes 12 servings in a 9x13 inch pan

8 cups cleaned and sliced fresh fruit such as peaches, plums, cherries, or blueberries sugar to taste (I add none for fresh peaches) spice to taste (I add a little cinnamon, sometimes ginger)

1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup vegetable shortening 2 cups all purpose or white whole wheat flour 3 tablespoons granulated white sugar 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 1 1/4 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Layer fruit in a 9x13 inch pan. Add sugar to taste and any spices you wish. 2. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl. 3. Cut butter and vegetable shortening into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives until the mixture is the size of small peas. 4. In a liquid measuring cup, stir vanilla into buttermilk. 5. Pour liquid into flour and stir just until mixture comes together. Do not over mix. 6. Spoon biscuit mix over fruit in 12 equal portions. 7. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until biscuits are browned and fruit is bubbly.

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Notes: Recipe added to Hearth and Soul. And, congratulations to Pork Giveaway winner Emily!

Momo Sake {Recipe for Peach Week}

Welcome to Peach Week! I declare it so because peaches are in season in Ohio and I love them! Before I get to the fruit of today's post, let me introduce the creator of the recipe, Anna. Anna is a 20 year old Japanese college student staying with us for two weeks. She is a chaperone to a group of 100 Japanese youth staying with host families throughout the state of Ohio. Anna was matched with our family because she like gardening, agriculture, and cooking.

When Anna arrived at our home Thursday evening, I showed her the peach (momo in Japanese) juice leftovers from Wednesday's peach canning extravaganza. With two other ingredients from the fridge, Anna showed me how to make Momo Sake, a delightfully refreshing summer drink.

Her pairing of peach nectar and sake is something I never would have arrived at myself. Cross cultural tastes are one of the things I love about hosting exchange students - they introduce us to the most delicious ideas.

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Momo Sake

2 ounces seishu sake or shochu (Anna prefers shochu, I like sake)

2 ounces peach nectar

4 ounces club soda, or to taste

one half cup ice cubes

1. Fill a high ball glass with a half cup of ice cubes.

2. Pour sake, peach nectar, and club soda over ice. Stir vigorously with a spoon for 5-10 seconds.

3. Enjoy!

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Stay tuned for sweet and juicy stories during Peach Week, including a review of Branstool orchard, peach cobbler recipe, and tips for canning.

PS. The pork giveaway ends tonight, Monday, at 8 pm. Leave a quick comment for a chance to win a cool piggy cutting board, $25 gift card, and more!

August 8, 2011 {Meal Plan}

Ingredients and Inspiration:

• Tomatoes and peppers are growing like crazy
• Anna wants to cook for us
• Anna wants to eat pizza while she is here
• I am teaching twice this week - 11 am Thursday preK corn class and 4 pm Sunday pickling at Franklin Park. Both have spaces still available!

Dinners:

Monday - homemade/homegrown BLT on homemade bread and purple potato salad

Tuesday - Anna makes tempura with garden veggies and rice balls

Wednesday - black bean stuffed peppers with sweet corn

Thursday - homemade pizza, fruit salad

Friday - chorizo burritos

Saturday - day trip to Amish country, dining during our trip

Sunday - try again for a family picnic - this week's was rained out

Wishes {Friday Five}

This week, I put myself out there and pitched some ideas to sponsors and media. As much as I like attention, I hate asking for help, so sending requests is hard for me. Yet I know that no one will be able to support my vision if I do not ask. In the event that someone reading this is able to help manifest my dreams, I boldly list them here today. I wish...

1) ...to move to a home with a big kitchen and mudroom on 2-4 rural acres in or very near Columbus. Space to entertain or build an education barn is a plus. I have so many plans for a sustainable urban homestead!

2) ...something comes of my idea to build a home food preserving tool lending library. I applied for a $1000 grant from Awesome Food for this project. If you like the idea of a pool of tools to share amongst cooking and preserving geeks, I would love to hear your thoughts about other funding sources.

3) ...for more chickens and bees and maybe meat rabbits. Space is holding me back, see #1.

4) ...my face would stop hurting already. In the last six weeks I have wrecked my digestive system with two different antibiotics and yet a sinus infection persists. I'll get another stamp on my ENT frequent patient card this afternoon.

5) ...that you all know how grateful I am. I love sharing photos, stories, and advice on this blog. Even better are the responses I hear when people try a recipe or start a garden or visit a market because of something they saw here. Thank you for reading.

Experimental Jamming

Homemade jam is a perfect canvass for creativity. Fresh seasonal fruit packs plenty of flavor on its own but thanks to the high acid content, fruit jam can be safely canned with herb and spice additions. Tired of the same old peach jam I usually make, I asked the family for new ideas. Lil wanted to combine our freshly picked peaches with farmer's market blueberries. Alex suggested playing with fresh basil from our garden.

And so it was that on Tuesday night I had three pots of jam on the stove.

For the blueberry basil, I added 1 tablespoon washed and chopped fresh basil to 1 cup of blueberries. The peach basil included 1 tablespoon basil to two cups mashed fresh peaches. For the blueberry peach, I mixed 1 cup blueberries with two cups mashed fresh peaches. I added a bit of Pomona's pectin and sugar to each pot, mostly relying on the natural pectin to set the jams.

With a few years of experimenting in the can, I offer these tips for creating your own flavors:

1. Use an existing recipe as a base. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has lots of them that have been tested for safety.
2. Can in small jars. Highly flavored jams tend to be used in specialty dishes and don't get eaten as fast as standard jams around my house. I like cute quarter pints because there's less to go through before the jam spoils.
3. The less sugar you use, the quicker it will spoil after opening. Finding homemade jam spoiled in the fridge is one of the worst feelings in the world so plan jar size and usage carefully for low sugar recipes. I've found over time that I prefer the taste, set, and preserving effect of using about 1 part sugar to 4 parts fruit.
4. Use Pomona's Pectin if you use pectin at all. Pomona's can be adjusted to any batch size and any amount of sugar, unlike most brands. I recommend starting with 1 teaspoon calcium water and 1 teaspoon pectin powder per cup of fruit.
5. Do a set test. If you are experimenting off recipe, you definitely want to test the set or gel-ness of the jam. I do this by putting a small spoonful in the freezer for one minute. If it sets then, I know it will set in the jars.
6. Flavors concentrate over time. What tastes like a hint of spice will become stronger as it ages in the jar. Err on the side of fewer flavor agents.
7. Use caution when mixing in fresh non-fruit ingredients. To safely can jams, the mixture must maintain acidity above 4.6 pH. Fresh herbs and most vegetables are low acid foods, so they must be used in moderation and/or corrected for acid balance by adding lemon juice.
8. If you are concerned about canning safely, freeze the jam or store in the fridge for short term use.

Have fun, canning friends!

Added to Simple Lives Thursday.