It was a peach of a day {or should I say week}

To be honest, I don't even know where my desire to can, especially peaches, came from, but I heard about the Harry and David Peach Palooza, where they sell peaches for $.10/lb.  and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to learn! I text my friend Kaylee and she was totally on board to can with me {even though she thought it was a little random!}.  We showed up around 12:00pm only to discover they were out of peaches, and had been since 10am, but would possibly be getting more the following Saturday.  I called on Wednesday, and they confirmed they would have more peaches that Saturday.  Kaylee and I were ready to be there bright and early...only one problem, we were going to a Sugarland concert that Friday outside of Eugene {about 3hrs north of Medford}.  So we did what any crazy-country-music-loving-wanting-to-learn-how-to-can girls would do, and drove home after the concert {got home around 3am}, and set our alarms for 6:15am to head to the Peach Palooza.  We were not the happiest campers when our alarms went off, but that quickly changed when we arrived to thousands of pounds of peaches and people frantically grabbing them...we were instantly caught up in the excitement and ready to fill our boxes {note to self: next time take smaller boxes!} We started singing {and playing on my iPhone} Peaches by The Presidents of the United States of America, and before we knew it, we had 250lbs of peaches! Yes, 250 lbs of peaches!

Now the question was what to do with all of these peaches!? The thought of a ton {a few yes, but a ton, no} of canned peaches didn't sound all that appealing {I don't remember the last time I had canned peaches}, so I started looking up canned peach ideas {thanks Pinterest}, and found a recipe for peach salsa and peach BBQ sauce.  I later found a canning edition of Better Homes & Gardens with a recipe for Jalapeno-Peach Jelly and Peach-Bellini Jam. Oh, and we had to have frozen peaches for smoothies and cobblers.  

We started our canning adventure by going over to my friend's house who is the canning queen with the perfect kitchen for it, and busted out 100 jars in one evening! We now felt like we knew enough to can on our own!

Wednesday night we were up until 2am slicing, dicing, mixing, boiling {burning}, {deliriously} laughing, wanting to cry, and canning. {another lesson learned: being more creative and making salsas, BBQ sauces & jellies is quite a bit more work than just canning the peaches}.  My kitchen is not quite equipped for a canning extravaganza, but we made the best of it...and now have great memories, chopped peaches for more cobblers, and cutely labeled jars full of peaches! 

The kitchen aftermath

This picture was taken around 1:00am

Canning wouldn't be complete without cute labels

I have made 3 peach cobblers in my entire life...in the last 3 weeks!

Best cobbler recipe every courtesy of the Reluctant Entertainer!

We are already thinking of what our next canning extravaganza will entail...perhaps applesauce!