What to do with 85 lbs of peaches...

That was the big question last weekend!! My friend Heidi & I went to Sauvie Island a week ago friday in our quest for peaches. We went last year (my first time!) and had a great time, so we thought we'd go get some peaches & do some canning. It was a sunny afternoon, summer hours at work which means we had left work at 3:15 on a friday, and off we went to pick a few peaches! Well, add into this equation that Heidi is 9 months pregnant and the idea of carrying a heavy box of peaches around an orchard as we picked them didn't seem (to me) like a *great* idea...but we were lucky! They had this great wagon! And of course they generously let us borrow the wagon! About an hour why we figured out why! All of our 3 boxes of peaches added up to about 85 lbs! No wonder they encouraged us to borrow the wagon!!

SO- Saturday was Canning day at my house. You can see the "furry lump" on the chair behind the peaches, clearly Josie was not into hanging out in the hot kitchen with us so much as he was getting his "kitty beauty sleep." (as he seems to do approximately 20 hours out of each day.) So- we peeled & cut peaches at the table, making one big sticky mess, but cut a LOT of peaches!
This was Heidi's first time canning, but she was a total pro! As soon as she realized the right side of the "jar grabbers" was the black handle not the red "tacky" side, she was off and could not be stopped!!! She was already asking when we would can applesauce!!!
Heidi, Still smiling after 6 hours of canning peaches!!
Success!!! We made about 36 jars of peaches, including 5 or 6 jars of pureed peaches for baby food! Ooh our babies will eat well!!
Yup...there I am too...also rejoicing after 6 1/2 hours of cutting/packing/canning peaches...rejoicing in the stock we'll both have to get us through the winter! I just love eating those sweet peaches in the cold winter months!! Hmm...peach cobbler in January! I can hardly wait!
We actually did not make it through all 85 lbs the first day, there were probably around 20 or 25 lbs left...Sunday was a blur with Heidi's baby shower & cake baking & getting ready for her surprise baby shower at work, Monday was class, tuesday was a going away party for Margie (In China now, meeting her daughter on Tuesday!!) as well as a vendor dinner (somehow I managed both- the vendor dinner started at 5:30, I stayed for a drink and appetizers, then scooted off to Tigard for the going away party...unfortunately the guest of honor was feeling under the weather & didn't make it, but we had a great time & we all got to see Michelle, home from China since February this year, so we all left with big smiles on our faces!

SO- all this to say that I could not get back to the peaches until Wednesday...by which time I probably lost aout 10 lbs (too ripe!), but the other 10-15 lbs I made into chutney- another 21 jars! Yum....the one thing I love almost as much as homemade applesauce, is homemade peach chutney. I can eat it on nearly any kind of meat, but my classmate from Chinese class (who is now living in Amsterdam) was far more creative than I with the chutney last year- he tried it on his oatmeal. I forgot to pass along "eating instructions"- but he said it was good...