Peach Preserves and Other Peach Recipes

Fresh peaches just scream summer! This year we harvested over 100lbs of peaches. My family couldn’t eat them fast enough so I realized I needed to do something else. So, I made peach preserves, peach sherbert, and peach salsa. I wanted to make peach butter too but ran out of time. We froze a pound to use in smoothies. 

If you are thinking about planting a peach tree, check out my blog post on how to care for your peach tree.

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Canning

When we first tried canning, I was a little intimidated but it really isn’t hard, just time-consuming. Make sure you have an entire afternoon to can.

The jars need to be sterilized. I needed to run the dishwasher so I put ours in it. You want to keep the jars warm to prevent cracking when filling with hot liquids. If your jars are already sterile, prior to filling, dip in the canning pot with hot water using your jar lifter. 

After boiling, don’t disturb the jars for 8 hours. Check the seal. They should not pop up and down. 

Blanching

Prior to canning, you need to blanch the peaches to remove the skins. Cut an X on the bottom of the peach to help with peeling. Place in boiling water for 2 minutes then immediately place in an ice bath. The ice bath stops the cooking process and helps the skin to pull away from the fruit. 

Peach Sherbert

I found an easy peach sherbert recipe with just 2 ingredients. It’s amazingly delicious.

• 5-6 peaches
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

After you’ve blanched, peeled, and removed the pits from the peaches. Place peaches in a blender and add sweetened condensed milk. Blend on high or puree. Place in a freezer-safe container. Freeze for four hours.

Honey Peach Preserves

The first thing I decided to make was preserves. I found a recipe that called for 2 cups of honey and thought that would be a great way to use our resources. The Bearded Rooster didn’t want to delete our honey so I used 1 cup and added ½ a cup of sugar. Sugar acts as a preservative and protects the color and texture of the food. Adding lemon juice prevents browning.

• 15-20 peaches
• ½ C lemon juice
• 1 C honey
• ½ C sugar

Makes 4 pints. We used half-pint jars. Since there are no artificial preservatives, the preserves will last 2-3 weeks in the frig once opened. 

The preserves are a little runny but when put on toast it seeps down into the bread…so good! I didn’t use pectin since peaches have naturally occurring pectin but next time I think I will (just to make it a little thicker). 

What else to eat with peach preserves

I recently bought some chutney at our local farmer’s market to go with pork tenderloin. Next time I’m going to try peach preserves instead. They would also go well with yogurt, ice cream, thumbprint cookies, or angel food cake. 

What do you eat with your preserves? I’d love to hear about it.

Peach Salsa

Now that you’ve tried peach preserves, you should make salsa. The tomatoes when blanched are much easier to peel than the peaches.

We haven’t figured out the spices for our own salsa so we use Mrs. Wages Salsa Canning Mix. We followed the directions but substituted peaches for part of the tomatoes. The Bearded Rooster also added fresh jalapenos from the garden and white onion.