This is going to be a short post as I have an early appointment. I’ll be posting over on preservingabundance.com later today with the details of the pantry pictures and giveaway. But for just a moment, I want to talk about peaches.
Yesterday was gloomy. I tried to brighten things up with a few fun projects. I made a lot of candles. I pruned my fruit trees. I set up the sewing center in anticipation of a 4-H sew on Saturday morning. Still, no matter what I did, the general sense of ennui pesisted. I needed sunshine. I made a very good dinner. We had chicken with mushrooms in wine sauce, rice and peas. But we wanted a little something sweet so after dinner I opened a jar of peaches I had canned last summer.
As soon as I tasted my first bite of peach I was transported to an August afternoon. The day was warm and pleasant. My good friend and neighbor, Judy, called to say that she was overrun with peaches and did we want some. Ben, Magggie and I pulled out some baskets and headed up the road. We spent maybe an hour climbing trees and picking peaches. The bees buzzed around the ripe fruit and the smell of those peaches perfumed every breath. Back home with our haul, the next several hours were spent peeling and pitting peaches, packing them in light syrup and getting them canned in anticipation of a February day, sunless and cheerless. We didn’t just eat peaches last night. We ate summer and sunshine, memories and anticipation in a jar. The differnece between a commercially canned peach and the ones I put up myself is the difference between what’s real and what only passes for real. My slices were not perfect in the same way a factory farmed peach is perfect but they were perfect the way nature and Gaia are perfect. On this day of clouds and cold and damp chill I toast you all with a perfectly imperfect peach.
The Just In Case Book Blog 
February 17, 2012 at 8:04 am
hmmm, maybe I need a bit of August…or June or July! I think I’ll get out some berries from the freezer and make something with them. Thanks for the idea!
February 17, 2012 at 8:21 am
I may never look at my canned peaches the same again!! Ha I remember putting peaches up on a day hot as a fire cracker and a big old sticky mess for days, but your right they sure are good on these winter days even if we are not having much of a winter this year. I made a peach cobbler with some leftovers a week or two ago, what a treat!
February 17, 2012 at 8:28 am
I had the same sort of day here in Atlanta where it was gray and rainy. I call them Jonah days. I made pork chops from our pig, pulled some tiny carrots from the garden with some frozen peas and made a blueberry pie from my blueberries last summer. When both my boys and my husband picked up their plates to lick them clean, I knew that I had done a good job.
February 17, 2012 at 9:36 am
Great Post. Sylvia…your comment had me laughing, Life at it’s best!
February 17, 2012 at 10:29 am
“Our jar” from the basement that topped off last night’s dinner of leftovers contained delicious pears – and the memories of an early fall afternoon, good friends, laughing children, and of course some bees buzzing around! I’m looking forward to seeing all that your new website promises to offer. Thank you!
February 17, 2012 at 8:06 pm
I completely agree! I try to save most of my canned peaches for late winter/early spring when other fruits aren’t available (at least not quality ones), but sometimes I just gotta open up a jar and enjoy.
February 18, 2012 at 11:21 am
When I was growing up (back in the Dark Ages), my mother kept a huge kettle of hot water on the back of the stove in which we quickly dipped the ripe peaches. They were then put into a pan of cold water. After that we could slip the skins off without removing any of the fruit. If they weren’t ripe enough, we had to resort to peeling. I can remember sitting outside under a huge oak tree to do the skinning in the cooler air than in the stifling kitchen. After enough were skinned they were taken inside and packed, covered with a light syrup and canned. The sanitation police would be horrified at doing some of the work under a tree, but I suspect it was no worse than having sweat dripping onto the fruit. The peaches were wonderful in pies, cobblers, and by themselves. Sometimes as a special treat (if it wasn’t very cold) my mother would mash them a little and freeze them in ice cube trays. Two or three cubes of the frozen peaches with a little cream was an amazing dessert.
February 18, 2012 at 11:20 pm
just wondering as a recent college grad from new england, if you and your family would welcome a weekend visit from a student for a quick appertience/experience note-taking experience. i figure if you let discovery channel in , you wouldnt mind a single guy!
February 22, 2012 at 11:01 am
There is a song by Greg Brown called “Canned Goods” that is really great. He says (among other things) that his Grandma put summer in a jar.
February 23, 2012 at 1:24 pm
About a week ago I thawed out some tomatoes and corn I had frozen last summer.
As soon as I opened the bag of tomatoes the smell of summer hit my nose. Sweet, ripe tomatoes. It beat any can of tomatoes that I would have gotten from the store. The corn was just as I remembered it sugar sweet and could have been considered dessert on it’s own.
I cannot wait for summer.
Thanks for this post! The peaches sound delicious.