Monday, July 8, 2013

Peach panic!

Help! I'm drowning in peaches and I can't get out!  Okay, not really, but it feels a bit like that.  After navigating our first pluots and nectarines, I thought I was getting the hang of orchard management, but I have been humbled by our peaches.  Both the pluots and nectarines came in small quantities thanks to low tree numbers, so we were able to find homes for them fairly easily between the CSA, farmers' markets, and a loyal restaurant account. 

Not so with the peaches.  Our 6 Redhaven yellow peach trees ripened faster than we expected, and all at once, such that we had close to 200 pounds of peaches to move, and move quickly.  Identifying the harvest window for fruit is an art, and one I have yet to master.  Having harvested many of our nectarines early, I vowed not to make this mistake again, telling myself to exercise patience.  So I waited patiently for the peaches, checking them by giving a few a gentle squeeze (which, it turns out, is not a good practice.  I should have read these peach picking tips first!).  Too firm.  I waited a few days and checked again.  Still too firm.  Then, as if someone flipped a switch, they were ripe.  Too ripe.  A gentle squeeze resulted in permanent fingerprints in the fruit.  Despite our best efforts to pick carefully and gently, they ripped open at the slightest touch, making about half of the peaches too damaged to sell (more on these in a minute).  Those that survived our picking went to the usual suspects, plus a few family, friends, and co-workers at case discounts.  But what to do with the rejects?  To let them go to waste would be a shame.  The flavor of these peaches...in a word, amazing.  Becca and I both agreed they were the best peaches we had ever eaten.  Soft, juicy, flavorful...everything you could want in a peach, minus durability.  Well, you know what they say: "When life gives you peaches...make peach jam!"

Boxes lined up for picking peaches.  Each holds 8-10 pounds of fruit. 
So make jam we did.  We were able to work with Harvest Sacramento's canning guru, Janet McDonald of The Good Stuff, in a commercial kitchen.  In one day, the three of us turned 75 pounds of damaged but delicious peaches into 71 half-pint jars of peach jam and peach butter.  By doing the work in a commercial kitchen, we can sell the jam at our farmers' markets, meaning that our "reject" peaches can bring in some funds to help us reach our revenue goal for the season, a goal that seems impossibly far away right now. 

Becca and Janet hard at work making jam.

The beginnings of a batch of peach jam.

Jars of peach jam cool down after canning. 

After surviving the attack of the Redhaven peaches, I could barely catch my breath before the next variety of peaches ripened.  Technically, these were peach-plums, but taste wise, at least to my untrained palette, they are 100% white peach.  The description provided by Dave Wilson Nursery notes of the Tri-Lite peach-plum, "A mild, classic white peach flavor and wonderful plum aftertaste make this fruit a unique treat.  Try as I might, and believe me, I tried plenty of these peach-plums, I could not detect any plum aftertaste.  Our 5 Tri-Lite trees set heavily this season, and apparently I was asleep on the job while thinning them, finding the ripe fruit much closer together than the requisite 6 inches apart.  Oops.  So we had lots of Tri-Lites, about 65 pounds per tree, for a total of 330 pounds of so.  That's a lot of peaches.  Although I did a better job getting this variety picked before they were too ripe, we still had a lot of seconds (fruit too damaged to sell).  So we made jam.  Again.  This time, we couldn't get into the commercial kitchen, so we settled for a home kitchen.  This jam would be for ourselves, our family, and our friends.  After working half a day at the farm on the 4th of July, we hit the kitchen for the afternoon, canning 50 or so half-pints of various peach jams (peach-lavender jam, low-sugar spiced peach jam, no-pectin peach jam).  This time, we got by with a little help from our friends--thanks, Michele and Sarah, for your hard work peeling, chopping, and jarring up peaches. 

Gorgeous Tri-Lite peach-plums for sale at the Swanston Park Farmers' Market.

Insufficiently thinned peach-plums on the tree.  Note the brace holding up the loaded branch to prevent breakage!

A Tri-Lite peach-plum in its native habitat.
Yesterday, I canned and froze the last of the Tri-Lite peaches, plus I baked a peach cobbler.  Although I love these peaches, if I don't eat another one for a long time, that will be okay.  My peach meter is past full.  Fortunately, we get a short break from peaches for a month or so before the next varieties will ripen, so I will have time to regain my peach appetite.  In the meantime, I'll be swimming in Dapple Dandy pluots.  The pluots are so good, but also so plentiful.  By my estimation there could be as much as 1000 pounds on our 10 trees, so we may have to get creative to find homes for all of these fruits.  If your stomach would make a good home for a pluot or two, let me know.  I know where you can get some for a good price. :)

The chickens also get their share of peaches.
One final note (literally):  packing all those peaches made me think of an old (1996) song about peaches.  Anyone else remember this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmaF6IOODFc?  The lyrics about millions of peaches struck a chord with me, no surprise.  (Dad, those puns are for you--hope you liked them!)