Accomplished: Canning

This post is about canning peaches, and there are no peaches in this photo.
Let's use our imaginations, shall we?

I love the summer.  On top of it being sunny and warm and devoid of snow, it is so much easier to eat well.   Fresh, local produce is so easy to get from the market or the garden, and it tastes so good.  I will not even look at a strawberry during the winter.  I don't see the point.  They are colourless and tasteless and...no.  But local strawberries in June...bliss!  Even better than strawberries, though, in my opinion, are peaches.  CAPS LOCK PEACHES!

Although obviously nothing can beat a fresh ripe peach at the height of summer, Jake and I decided to preserve some of that summer flavour to enjoy later in the year.

We began with about 20 pounds of peaches.

It is a thing of beauty.

First, we washed the peaches and prepared a bath of water, ice and vitamin C powder (the ascorbic acid stops the peaches from browning).

Next, we blanched the peaches.

Then we placed them in the ice bath.

Now it looks like a regular peach, but actually it is a blanched and shocked peach, meaning it's skin does this:

So now it is easy to peel the peaches and halve them.

After all the peaches were skinned and halved...

We packed them in jars and poured sugar syrup over them.

Then we put them in the boiling water canner for 30 minutes,

took them out and listened to their little seals pop.  Tada!

The first batch experienced "fruit float" because we didn't pack the fruit in enough.
The second batch was better but of course I have no pictures.