Peach-A-Palooza

Harry & David's has an annual Peach-a-palooza event where they sell about a million peaches for uber cheap by the pound. This year we decided to head over and give it a try!

Jonathan, April and I got up at 4:30 and headed over to Medford all squeezed into the front bench seat in my dad's tiny truck, lol!

(I got this picture from the Harry & David facebook page)

They rope part of the parking lot off, fill it with bins and bins of peaches. Then at 7 am they yell, "go!" and everyone runs (yes, runs) to the bins and starts loading like crazy into their boxes, bags, carts, etc. By 7:12 am we were standing in line with two shopping carts and a wagon completely filled! 396 pounds of peaches for just under $60!

Then we had the most hilarious drive home! I think it was partly due to the fact that we were half-asleep still, crammed into a tiny truck, and knew that we had just bought 400 pounds of peaches that we had to head home and do something with. We laughed the entire way home, complete with an impromptu song from Jonathan about the dangers of drinking alcohol. 

My kids were happy to see me (they had just gotten up and were still in jammies eating breakfast) and I immediately set to work on a batch of jam. 

My food processor was a life saver!! 

Gabriella helping me stir the peach puree that was going to be jam. As much as she makes messes when she is "helping" me with things, I would prefer to clean up the mess and explain to her what I am doing so that she is exposed to and grows up learning about these kinds of things. It's important to me to know that she is learning life skills. 

First batch of jam is on! 

(I make all my jams sugar-free with no sweetener. I use Ball Low Sugar/No Sugar Pectin. It works great!)

Here is my recipe for peach jam:

Per Pint you need

2 cups fruit (smooshed or pureed)

1 1/2 T low sugar/no sugar pectin

1/3 cup 100% fruit juice (I like to put orange with peach)

1/2 T lemon juice

Next it was Xander's turn to help mommy. He did a good job handing me peaches that were soaking in the sink when I needed one. 

Matt taste testing the giant bowl of peach sauce that I made. This bowl ended up making 17 pints of peach sauce (like apple sauce) sweetened with just a smidge of organic agave. 

A picture of the sliced peaches and peach jam that Jonathan and April made. 

All in all, after giving away 3 grocery bags full of peaches from my 200 pounds, I made 17 pints of peach sauce, 7 pints of peach rum sauce, 21 cups of peach jam, 6 quarts of sliced frozen peaches, and 14 quarts of sliced canned peaches. We are set on peach products for the year, lol! 

I am so thankful that my parents raised us being exposed to home survival/self-sustaining techniques. I love that making and canning jam is not a huge scary task to me. And I am super thankful for a husband who doesn't mind that I brought home 200 pounds of peaches!!