Winter is coming and the harvest is in. That means it’s the time of year where you need to eat it or save it. I know many folks are taking stock of their harvest and canning or freezing all sorts of fresh, delicious produce. Canning, freezing, pickling, fermenting: these are all wonderful ideas to save food. Since I have been addicted to peaches this year (hence having to freeze me some peaches), I’m going to share with you my favorite tricks on how to freeze peaches.
If you didn’t know, I have a slight problem. I just love peaches!!! I already bought 40+ lbs of fresh palisade peaches from the farmer’s market this year. And, I ate them in everything: plain peaches, peach blueberry smoothie bowls. peach salsa, grilled peaches, peach pancakes, peach syrup, peaches n’ kale smoothie bowls, peach carnitas tacos… you get the point. And while I did my very best to eat them all, I am just not that strong.
Also, I want to savor those peaches and enjoy them all year-long. So, I have to figure out a way to save a few for later in the year. I made some peach jam, but I also like to freeze the whole slices of peaches!
Frozen peaches are amazing! They make a great snack or dessert all on their own. They are good candidates to sweeten up a winter green smoothie and also work swimmingly in a smoothie bowl. While I’m thinking about it, one day I might even make a peach blueberry cobbler using these frozen peaches. Yes, you could buy frozen peaches from the store, but those have added sugar and citric acid and probably aren’t from the freshet most in season peaches. For this reason, I do it myself – and you can, too!
How to freeze peaches, you ask? First, to prevent discoloration you add a little lemon juice. Secondly, you need to ensure they don’t end up in one big frozen clump. That’s why you freeze them individually first by laying each slice flat on a baking sheet BEFORE throwing them in a bag for storage. The key is that they are frozen before the slices touch each other so that the slices don’t get frozen together. Magic 🙂
How to Freeze Peaches – a Step by Step Guide
Ingredients
Instructions
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Wash peaches and slice into the desired thickness for your frozen peaches.
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Mix water and juice of a lemon in a bowl.
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Coat the peach slices in the lemon water and then lie flat on a lined baking sheet. Make sure not to stack the peach slices on each other, otherwise, they will stick together.
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Freeze the peaches.
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Once frozen, put slices in a large freezer-safe bag for storage.