Peaches and Cream

Today is Tuesday, July 8, 2008. The sun is shining and the sky is blue.
We just finished our breakfast and what a breakfast it was! Toast (homemade bread), fresh peaches right off our tree, and cream. (Well, our "city" form of cream - Carnation Condensed Milk.) Now that the peaches are ripening we will need to get the canning routine going again. We just finished canning apricots about two weeks ago. Every year when we can peaches we talk about the year in Bakersfield when we canned over 200 quarts of peaches.
All the children (9 of them) were still at home. Now peaches are not really hard to can. They require peeling but with a freestone peach that is not a hard thing to do. You just get a big pan of boiling water, drop in the washed peaches, count to about 20 (with practice you get so you can tell by the way the skin looks), plunge the peaches into cold water and peel off the skin with your hands. Then you cut around the seed and the two sides drop right off. During our lifetime we have bottled lots of freestone peaches.
This one particular year was a little different. The year I am talking about was the year of the "Cling peaches." Clings are the most popular kind for the commercial canneries. The skins are not so easily removed. Commercial canneries use some kind of lye solution that isn't practical for home canning. Out south of Bakersifeld was this huge cling peach orchard which was connected with commercial canning. For some reason the peaches were not just the way they were supposed to be - too small, too large, whatever - and the grower decided to sell them off to anyone who would come pick. $1 a box - and if you brought a small box that was your problem.
With all our "helpers" we headed off with several big toilet tissue boxes. We have 9 good workers in our children and with Glen and I we made quite a "pickin" crew. It was hot, let me tell you. But everyone kept right at the job. Then home to start the bottling process. Since each peach had to be peeled we used our potato peelers (we even went out to buy several more). Wash the peaches, peel them like you would a potato, and then they had to be cut off the seed. We got quite skillful and creative with that part of the job. One whack on each side - for two large pieces. One whack on each end for two smaller pieces. And then one person cut off as much as possible from the seed. We put them into the bottles in like manner. All big pieces in one jar, side peices in another jar, and the little bits in another jar. We had three basic "stules."
Now cling peaches taste wonderful from the can or the bottle. It is just the process of gettting them ready. We worked and worked at those first boxes. Of course, we also prepared plenty for eating fresh. No slackers in the work crew. I was even amazed at how long and hard the children worked. The whole job was no easy task.
We set a goal to can 100 quarts of cling peaches. We had to go to the orchard more than once. As we approached the 100 mark we were all excited. This took a matter of several days, mind you. Then lo and behold, when we finished the last batch we had 110 beautiful bottles lining our cupboard shelves. We were all so pleased with our hard work.
Then our oldest son said, "Why don't we go for 200?" I was ready to hear moans and groans from his younger brothers and sisters, but guess what? They all were caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment and heartily agreed with him. (They all love to eat peaches.)
How could the parents dampen that youthful eagerness! We piled in the car with our boxes. By this time we knew about how many quarts each box would do. And we picked more peaches. Then home to do the canning process. Lots of hard work, lots of family togetherness, and lots of good peaches to take us through the winter. Such a wonderful memory! Glen and I sure have fond feelings in our hearts over that work crew of ours. I wonder how each of them feels about that experience. One thing we know, our children all know how to work. Thank you all, our dear children.
That's all for today.