I’m totally wild about all the incredible wild fruits I can gather during the growing season. It starts with serviceberries (Saskatoons), followed by haskaps, mulberries, and shortly elderberries. However, as I forage at my local farmer’s markets, fresh peaches have my attention.
A Brief History
Of course, peaches are not wild fruit, but they used to be. It is generally believed that China is where peach cultivation began, about 6000 BC.
- Peach stones between 8,000 and 7,000 years old were uncovered at the Kuahuqiao archeological site, located in Xianghu village in the east near Hangzhou.
- The scientific name Prunus persica, means Persian Peach, but they originate from China. Like so many other Chinese foods, peaches arrived to Persia via the historical Silk Road. The Silk Road opened to western Asia roughly 130BC.
- The peach was introduced to Rome shortly after that, then distributed throughout the Roman Empire.
- Peaches were taken to the Americas by the Spanish in the 16th century.
Waste Not Want Not
This is a popular saying but what exactly does this mean? Simple! Waste not means don’t throw away or misuse food, money or any items we use in life.
Want not means not to experience poverty, hunger, or a lack of essentials later.
The writing is on the wall. Our planet is experiencing severe droughts, flooding, and wars. We are almost on the edge of something we have never experienced in this lifetime. Food prices now are high enough. We may see prices on some items become unattainable; and many items may not even make it to our store shelves. Will this happen? I can’t say for sure, however, I believe that getting into the mindset of using everything to its full potential before throwing it out is important.
I’m using peaches as a great example of waste not want not.
Using All Parts of the Peach
I recently purchased my new favorite book, Bernardin: The Complete Book of Home Preserving. The first recipe I made was the Peach Pie Filling and it was outstanding. Only because they are still in season, I made a second batch but this time I did not want to repeat a mistake I made – tossing out the peel and pits.
Making this recipe took 36 peaches and that’s a lot of peach peel and pits. So, I took about a third of the peel, chopped it up into small pieces, added a touch of lemon juice and placed them in a sealed container in the fridge. What else did I do?
Peach Juice and Popsicles
I took the pits and placed them in a pot. I added water until the water was about 3” above the pits. I tossed in a cinnamon stick then slowly heated until just below the boiling point. Next was lowering the temperature to simmer and letting it sit for 30 minutes while stirring on occasion.
Then I removed it from the heat, let it thoroughly cool and placed it in the fridge overnight.
In the morning I strained the mixture, added a touch of honey and bottled it. Some of the juice I made into popsicles!
Peach Cookies and Banana Bread
Using your favorite banana bread recipe, add to this, about 1 cup of chopped up peach peel. It’s that simple. It will be a moist banana bread!
The cookies:
In a bowl place: 1 cup softened butter, 1 egg, 1 chopped peach peel, 4 tbsp fresh minced ginger, 1 tbsp water and blend well. Add in ½ cup organic cane sugar and mix. Slowly add 2 ½ cups of unbleached flour and a pinch of salt. Thoroughly mix.
Shape the dough into a roll, then roll it in shredded coconut. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 45 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Unwrap the cookie dough and cut it into ¼ inch slices. Place on the prepared baking sheets.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cookies are slightly brown on the bottom. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet.
Peach Jelly
I made peach liquid using about 2 cups of chopped peach peels and a couple of pits (with some bits of peach fruit that came off with the peel and pits). As I simmered the peel and pits in 4 cups of water, I added some cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. After 30 minutes I removed this from the heat and let sit for 20 minutes. Then I created a drip bag using cheesecloth and suspended it over a large bowl. I carefully poured the mixture through the cheesecloth, tied it, then let it naturally drip for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile I made sure I had sterilized mason jars and lids waiting. The jars I kept in the oven at 200 degrees F. Have your water bath canner heating up.
After the liquid dripped, I measured 1 ¾ of the liquid and put it in a large pot. As it was heating, I added 3.5 cups of granulated sugar and 2 tbsp of bottled lemon juice. (Must be bottled lemon juice for long-term storing.) I stirred constantly until there was a full rolling boil.
Then I added one package of liquid pectin (3oz). (You must use liquid pectin when adding to hot liquid – powdered pectin will not work!) Be sure to constantly stir until it comes to a boil again – boil and stir one minute! Remove from heat. Use a slotted spoon to remove the foam. Pour the jelly into heated, sterilized jars and seal.
Process in a water bath for 10 minutes (if you live at or below an altitude of 1,000 feet.) (Important – If you reside at a higher altitude, please refer to Ball Mason Jars website to adjust your processing time.) https://www.ballmasonjars.com/adjust-high-altitude-canning.html
Remove, and set on a towel-covered surface. Let sit for 24 hours – do not move, do not touch! After 24 hours be sure your lids are properly sealed. Sealed lids are concaved.
So – there you have it! 36 peaches, canned peach pie filling, jelly, cookies, fruit bread, juice and popsicles!
Times are changing and it’s best to change our mindset from just doing a recipe to anything else we do in life; remember, waste not want not.
