Canning and Freezing Red Haven Peaches

I tend to go in spurts with certain produce when putting it up.  If I can get what I don't grow for a good price then I will can enough for 2 seasons which gives me a cushion if the price is too high the following year.  This looks like the year of the peach as far as canning goes.  The first peaches I put up were spirited and non-spirited peaches.  I used a cling free (freestone) variety but not Red Haven peaches.

Red Haven (Prunus persica) peaches are a cling free variety that is juicy, sweet with excellent flavour suitable for all purposes.  They are wonderful for canning as the pit pretty much pops out with little effort.  The natural blush adds a lovely colour to the canned peaches.

My quartering method for peaches works wonderfully with Red Haven peaches.  It takes very little time to peel the peaches without having to blanch to slip the skins.  I find that not blanching to slip the skins give a nicer canned product.  As I peel the peaches I slip them into water with a little lemon juice to prevent browning before canning or freezing.

Home canned peaches are a true winter delight.  They are wonderful for breakfast with buttered toast, as an afternoon snack or as an easy dessert.  Pictured are the Red Haven peaches I canned.

I used a light syrup to raw pack the peaches.  The gold lids are the standard Bernardin single use metal canning lids.  The white lids are the Tattler reusable canning lids I'm testing.  All of the jars sealed and look rather nice.  Floating fruit is to be expected with any raw packed fruit and that is because the fruit shrinks somewhat during the canning process.  The L (quart) jars with Tattler lids had no problems but there was a slight problems with the Tattler used on the 500 ml (pint) jar.  The Tattler lids have a slightly different method for using.  In this case the jar lost liquid yet sealed.  The suspected reason for this is the way I put the lid on prior to canning.  When using Tattler lids it is important to tighten the ring then turn the ring back ¼- inch.  This method takes a bit of getting used to so I'm sure I perhaps turned back the ring a bit more than I should have.

I don't freeze a lot of peaches.  If anything I may freeze one large bag I decided to freeze some of the Red Haven peaches rather than run another canner load.  I don't use a syrup or any sugar when freezing peaches.  I simply drain the peaches from the lemon water then load into a freezer bag.  Alternately the slices can be froze in a single layer on a baking sheet then packaged into a zipper style freezer bag.

I used about 3 L of the prepared sliced peaches.  This gave about a gallon bag of peach slices for the freezer.  This is the perfect size for dessert when all the kids and grandbabies are home or for when we are entertaining.