Reply #7: They freeze fine, can well. [View All]

Basic rule: blanch them and remove the skins before you do any processing.

When I freeze them, I make a very light sugar syrup (10 quarts of water to 1.25 cups of sugar, adjust as needed in same proprotions) and add a little nutmeg to the syrup. Then after I've skinned and sliced the peaches, I add 2 tsp of lemon juice to the syrup per quart of water in the syrup and cook the peaches for a couple minutes in the sugar syrup (you can use fruit jiuce for this, but peach juice is hard to find, and apple juice isn't right. Pear juice works great if you can find it. Use the lemon juice, though.) Then they get packed into freezer containers and chilled in the fridge, then frozen.

Canning is the same process up to the packing, where they go in sterilized quart jars and into the hotwater bath for 45 minutes (altitude you know).

Given a choice of the two, I actually prefer my canned peaches to my frozen ones. The canned ones hold their shape better, and I can use them a bit more decoratively. And I'm one of those sick and twisted types who isn't enamored of fresh peaches (eating something that feels like a baby's cheek in my mouth squicks me out), but I like them canned or cooked. Thus the very light syrup or the juice.