Perfect Peaches

On my way home from a trip to Peoria, IL, I detoured just a little to stop in Muscatine, Iowa to get some canteloupes and a watermelon.  They were selling lots of other vegetables and Missouri peaches.  I bought a few peaches - you never know if they're going to be good.  Got home and everything was so good.  A couple weeks later Bill and I headed east to find and try a catfish place (another blog soon) and came home through Muscatine.  This time we got a whole box of peaches and every single one in the box were beautiful. 

 

I Googled how to freeze them since Bill loves peach pie almost as much as apple!  It sounded easy.  What I read said to let them ripen to the eating stage and then refrigerate them, not touching, for up to a week before freezing.  Then for easy peeling, lightly cut an X on the bottom of the peach and boil for 40 seconds.  Then put in a bowl of ice water.

I was amazed at how easy and fast it was to peel them with just my fingers!  And no waste this way!  I cut them in half and they pulled away from the seed perfect.  

I sliced them and then dunked them quickly into a bowl of water mixed with some Fruit Fresh (no picture).  This is supposed to keep them from turning brown when they thaw.  Some directions I read didn't mention doing this step.







I put them on a tray lined with paper towels to drain.

Then I layed them out on a tray lined with parchment paper so that they would freeze individually, and then I could bag them.  

This way if you'd want to just use part of them, they wouldn't be all stuck together.  I ended up with 4 bags/4 c. each of beautiful peach slices - enough for four pies I hope!  Such an easy thing to do - I will do this every year if I can find good peaches again!  We have a couple more in the refrigerator and they are still as good as when I put them in there.