3 - people that came to Peach Day
7 - boxes of peaches ready to be bottled
600+ - individual peaches to be blanched, peeled and sliced (mostly by Aleah, who claimed to enjoy the work)
3 - crock pots full of peach butter that needed blending and bottling2 - hours Joe spent buying and assembling the Camp Chef stove (and we would have gone crazy without it)
6 - pots of boiling water (used for various purposes) we had going at any given time7 - hours spent, in a row, on our feet, peeling, slicing and packing peaches
4 - peaches stolen by Little Man and left, half-eaten, around the house
6 - large bags of ice used
40 - pounds of sugar used (that's not an exaggeration, we really did go through 40 pounds of sugar for the bottling syrup and the jam). Oh, thanks to Becca's mom Valerie for telling us to put 1/2 cup sugar in the bottles with the peaches (then fill with boiling water) instead of mixing syrup separately. I think it was less messy and you didn't waste any syrup.
2 - bottles lost to unforeseen accidents
27 - little cuts Aleah has in her hand from the paring knife
1 - time we sat down and actually ate something
3 - lids we had left over (whew!)
253 - times I told Minnie that she could not use the computer/play in the street/assemble a functional rocket, until I was done with the peaches
87 - quarts of peaches successfully bottled (I don't know how many pints of jam and peach butter we ended up with. Pam?)
36 - bottles which belong to me and are stored lovingly in my food storage room to be petted, admired and gobbled up throughout the next year.
I'm loving them! I'm going to have to wrap a chain around them with a hundred padlocks and give a neighbor the key because we're already down five jars! ORRR.... nah, I'm still exhausted from Saturday!
ReplyDeleteCan I borrow your pics? My family is SO not going to believe this!
Great job! We had our own Peach Day over the weekend. I actually thought about you a lot as I sat there cutting... and cutting... and cutting. Have you ever heard that song by the Presidents of the United States of America? 'Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches.'... that phrase went through my head about a million and a half (no exaggeration!) times as I sat there cutting peaches. What a song!
ReplyDeleteAnd kudos to you guys for doing it with your kids there. That's our #1 non-negotiable rule. That way it's also like a really really reeeaaalllly long GNO!
Great job!
-Jessica
Sorry I missed the bottling extravaganza. We ended up bottling pears and making grape juice, I may have been a little "canned" out. :) Your peaches look GREAT though! I love having lots of home canned goodness!
ReplyDelete