Peaches, Peaches and More Peaches. need help

[Barb]

Peach nectar is a good use for less perfect peaches.

[MamaTiger]

You can use the culls to make peach jelly--since you aren't a jam person, you can use the jelly to cook meat in the crockpot. It gives meat a delicious flavor, delicate, but very flavorful.

Cut off the bad spots and use the peelings, good parts, and pits. Cover just barely with water in stock pot and cook til water comes to a boil. Let cool then strain with cloth. Use the juice ot make jelly/marinade.

[naturallysweet]

Peach chicken is pretty. Substitute peach juice for another juice in a recipe with chicken, such as orange chicken, and it turns out pretty good.

Make sure to can up several years worth of peaches. I find that good peach crops only come around every few years. Next year you may not have enough to eat fresh.

[fairfield]

Ours all fell off at quarter size, too. The apples are better, but bugs are eating them. Going to put diam...earth on them tomorrow. Now that I remember I have it. Wonder how it would work on the corn field? My tomatoes are a mess this year, too much rain. 21 days of rain last month.

Guess I will have to go out and buy a bunch of peaches to can.

[Just Kate]

Well I am in trouble now! Had to go buy some peaches from the local orchard. I bought seconds trying to save money. I bought 1.5 bushels.

I made up a 5 gallon bucket of peach brandy/wine (it uses 8 pounds of raisens and boo koo sugar) .

I then made one batch of peach pie filling which became an issue with the seconds because I had to cut off 1/3 of each peach to get to the non-gushy parts. it took forever. With the process of removing the skins and then putting in ice, it seemed everything in my kitchen was put to use.

I have to go to Walmart this morning to get more pectin for another round of peach pie filling and I am exhausted due to having done this with my entire round of Saturday chores.

I have two bushels I have to do something with today. So will look into freezing what is left after the pie filling.

Cut off the bad spots and use the peelings, good parts, and pits. Cover just barely with water in stock pot and cook til water comes to a boil. Let cool then strain with cloth. Use the juice ot make jelly/marinade.

Here is my question: I have about 4cups of the liquid leftover (pectin and sugar etc) from the last batch of pie fillings. Can I use that in cooking down the tailings from the peaches (peels and soft spots) and cook it down and then strain through cheesecloth into pint jars? Would that bee too sweet?

If I just cook down the tailings and strain is that better ?

In addition, do I water bathe those pints for 10 minutes or so ?

Fairfield: We are in the same position. Last year we had an abundance of tomatoes this year not much and as I said earlier the peaches just were disappointing.


The other question is the orchard folks told me that they use pheromones (sp) to keep bugs away. Anyone familiar with this for pest control.

OK off to Walmart.

[Just Kate]

Ours all fell off at quarter size, too. The apples are better, but bugs are eating them. Going to put diam...earth on them tomorrow. Now that I remember I have it. Wonder how it would work on the corn field? My tomatoes are a mess this year, too much rain. 21 days of rain last month.

Guess I will have to go out and buy a bunch of peaches to can.

How are you applying that? Do you put in a spray bottle with water or dust and if you are dusting them how do you do that?

Thanks again.

[GoodEnergy]

Here's a recipe that I just love. If you don't have tons and tons of peaches(or pretty much any fruit) and dont want to crank up the big old canner or dehydrator, these little cobbler/crisps in jars are just the ticket. Make, freeze and bake when you want to serve them. The little jars stack and don't even take up huge amounts of freezer space. I just baked a few that had been in the freezer 2 years for unexpected company the other week.

http://wendolonia.com/blog/2010/06/16/crisp-in-a-jar/

[Summerthyme]

I just use a rotary "duster" to apply DE. It's a problem for things like fruit trees, though- difficult to get decent coverage, and- of course- rain washes it right off. I wish someone would come up with a combination product with DE and some sort of "sticker/spreader" chemical which would extend the effective life of the DE.

However, applying DE heavily around the base of the tree... basically over the entire root zone (which covers essentially the same space UNDER the ground that the crown covers ABOVE ground) in EARLY spring (say, when it first starts leafing out) will help control any insects which burrowed into the soil to overwinter. Applying sticky tape to the trunk will also prevent creeping/crawling insects from coming up the trunk to access the leaves and fruit.

Pheromes are sexual attractants designed for individual insects. I've tried using pherome traps for Japanese Beetles and Striped Cucumber beetles... the Japanese Beetle Traps DO work, somewhat. I didn't see ANY Striped Cucumber beetles on the sticky pads, though- and they WERE in the garden.

One problem is you really should place the traps AWAY from your crops... you really don't want to attract the pests TO your trees!! So, the trick is to place them far enough away to not pull pests to the crop you're trying to protect, but close enough to lure them away from your crop. They also have to placed at the right time... not too early or late for the particular insect (not critical, but the phermone producing plastic does run out of chemical after awhile.

Summerthyme

[fairfield]

I do as I have in the chicken coop, grab a handful in a slight breeze and let it go slowly. All the ground around the area is covered and the dusting gets the trees the right spots. When I dust the barn, I start where the hens like to sit and dust themselves. That gets them to take it with them as they visit their haunts. Or I toss it on them as they feed.

Have thought about getting shaker from the kitchen store, one for peppers at pizza joints, and using it.

I tend to buy the broken bags at the feed store. Often, only a little is spilled, but the price is half. That way, I can be generous with the dusting.

[Patches]

I bought a bunch of Elberta peaches. They are so fragile they just about spoil overnight.

I just put them in the freezer. I didn't wash them, I didn't peel them, I just put them in.

They held until I had time to put most of them up. Some are going on their second week in the freezer. I'll let you know how that worked out. I've got to do something with them soon.