Go ahead and use a peeler or sharp paring knife if you have just one or two peaches to peel, but if you have more than a couple this is going to save you a lot of headache and time!
But when you buy a 25 lb box of peaches from the peach truck, like me, you’ll want to use this trick!
I had LOTS of peaches to peel, cut, and put in bags to freeze so I was ready for any trick to save my hands from peeling each single peach!
LETS PEEL SOME PEACHES!
This was my assembly line that I set up for my peach peeling adventure!
I had a pot of boiling water, a slotted spoon to scoop the peach out (and place them in so hot water didn’t splash on me), a pot of ice water, a cutting board with a sharp knife, a bag for the skin and cores, & a bowl for finished peaches.
STEP 1: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Once your water is boiling, take your peaches and a sharp knife and slice the bottom of the peach, it doesn’t have to be deep, just a small little slice. A lot of people will say to do an X, as long as you have a slice it will work just fine.
STEP 2: I put about 6-8 peaches in the boiling water at a time. Let them boil for about 30-60 seconds. Then pull them out and place them in a bowl of ice water for another 30-60 seconds.
STEP 3: Pull them out of the ice bath and the skin should peel right off with your fingers. Then I placed all of the whole peaches in a bowl before I cut them up because the process goes pretty quick so I didn’t have time in between blanching to cut each peach into slices.
STEP 4: There are so many options once your peaches are peeled. You can just eat them whole like an apple, you can can them whole, you can cook something with them, you can slice them to eat or put them in a container in the fridge for a few days to eat throughout the week, or you can freeze them (this is what I did).
From a 25 lb box of peaches I got 5 FULL 1 gallon baggies full of peach slices to put in the freezer!
What To Do With The “Trash”
The skins & cores are NOT TRASH!!!
Do NOT throw them away- they are full of so many nutrients and flavor!
- Give them to your chickens (be careful sometimes the pits can be toxic-but chickens really won’t eat anything they don’t like-at least mine don’t).
- Compost them!
- Make peach syrup
- Make peach jelly
- Make peach tea
If you don’t have time to make something with them right away, put them in a bag and freeze them until you have time to use them!
