Brandy from The Prudent Homemaker emailed this tip:
Vons has yellow peaches on sale for $0.50 a pound. The sale runs Sunday, August 1st, through August 7th, 2010. These are probably freestone but you will need to check (have the produce person cut one open for you; if the flesh comes away easily from the pit, it’s a freestone peach. If the flesh clings to the pit, it’s a cling peach; good for fresh eating but not for canning).
Last year I bought and canned 324 pounds of these peaches and they were wonderful.
If you want them to order them for you, go early in the week and ask them to order as many boxes as you will need. Most stores get shipments in on Tuesdays and Fridays. Stores typically only keep a few boxes at a time, but you can order as many boxes as you will need.
This is a great way to get peaches in season at the lowest price of the year to enjoy all year long!
Last year my neighbor gave us lots of pears. I peeled, sliced, froze and in combination with other berries, used the pears for smoothies. Makes a good filler for a teenage son!
I was able to find peaches for $0.35/lb this year (significantly cheaper than you pick). That’s the cheapest I’ve ever seen them. I’m in Georgia, and peaches have had a banner year this year.
I also love having fruit in the pantry to open during the winter. I do freeze some, but I don’t have a big enough freezer for all of our needs, hence the canning.
We don’t have a Von’s, but I wonder if they’re organic peaches are on sale too. Here in Michigan, I shop at Meijer. They often combine the sale. For example, when peaches or plums are on sale, the organic ones are discounted too. Peaches are on the “dirty dozen” list as far as pesticides. I don’t buy everything organic but do try to stick with the items on that list since pesticides are especially a concern for children. Hope this helps!
I just canned for the first time this evening – I enjoyed reading about your experience just now. 🙂
I bought a half bushel, but only did 4 quarts this evening. I am going to West Africa in November to visit my missionary grandparents and am wanting to take them fruit they don’t get over there.
My husband and I had some college students over for dinner and then the 5 of us worked on canning together – it definitely took a lot longer than it should have but was SO fun with friends! 🙂
Someone come and take some pears off of our trees!! We have two trees absolutely loaded with pears and we don’t even like them that much. About 5 pears a year is all we really want. Except…can I freeze them like apples and make pear bread? Is pear sauce any good?
My two bushels of peaches will come in soon…time to can, freeze and make peach/blueberry smoothies!
I’ve made pear sauce with good success before — if your family isn’t terribly particular. 🙂 And I’ve also frozen them peeled and sliced for pies or bread.
@Abbie, Pear sauce is not bad, and pear nectar is pretty good, too, even if you’re not a huge pear fan ( I am not). I’ll take pear nectar and mix it with pineapple juice, peach nectar, frozen raspberries and cold water for a fruit punch for parties. Pear sauce is perfect baby food. My children aren’t huge fans of pears, but they will devour pear butter.
You can also substitute pear sauce for apple sauce and make pear butter. It makes great Christmas gifts if you don’t like it. I think it’s even better than apple butter with apples.
If I lived near you, I would gladly come pick your pears 🙂 (Do speak up if you live in Las Vegas and I’ll be right over!) I’m sure there is someone who lives near you who could use the food if you ask around. Some people put ads in their local freecycle. Also, some food banks accept produce donations .
@Abbie, Pears work great for pie…just use an apple pie recipe and you won’t notice the difference.
@Holly Neaton,
if you have lots of zucchini you can make mock apple pie that way. taste totally the same i was in shock.
@Abbie,
🙂 I would come pick too if I lived near you!!
@Jessica Lynette, Thanks everyone! I don’t like to see the pears go to waste, so finding something to do with them is helpful. I did find a recipe for pear bread so I think I will give that a try. I got a food mill for Christmas so maybe pear sauce too! Sorry, I am not Las Vegas! 🙂
324 pounds – that is impressive! Here in the midwest, good peaches are hard to find and usually very expensive. We will soon be swamped with loads of pears from our trees, though 🙂
You all are lucky! Here in VA peaches rarely go below 99 cents a lb, and pears never do. Even at a farm stand locally grown. Although peaches by the bushel are cheaper, but I don’t want that many at a time!
@Heather, Last year I canned over 8 bushels. You have to work quickly, but if your family will eat them, it’s worth it! Some years they only go down to .99 a pound here; it just depends on the year. For us, this means will apples only go down to $1.99 a pound in the winter, we can eat peaches instead that I bought for .50 a pound. It saves us a lot of money in produce every year by buying fruit at the lowest pices of the year.
At some point I hope to not have to buy any, but my trees aren’t quite that big yet. However, we have had grapes, apricots, figs, peaches and plums from our garden this year!
Do you know if it’s just Von’s or Safeway too?
I’m in California, so our produce prices may be lower than in other areas, but we have pears for $0.37 / lb at Lucky (aka Savemart) this week, which is also a good price for buying them to can.
@Becca, That is a great price for pears! I have seen them between .25 and .79 a pound at the lowest in the last few years. There is always one week a year when they are that low, and here it is always Vons that has the pears that low as well. Last year it was very difficult because both were on sale the same week! Normally peaches and pears are both in August, but I’ve never had them on sale at the same time before! Sounds like it’s time for pears for you!
If you live anywhere close to where peaches are grown you can likely find a better price at a farm stand or farmers market. The peaches are more delicious too…in my opinion.
I canned nearly 100 quarts last year and can’t wait to get started on this year’s batch!
@Kristin, Kristin,
I live in Las Vegas. The closest peaches we can get are grown in St. George, Utah (unless you grow them yourslef, and my tree is only 3 years old, so I only got 10 quarts this year from it), and this year the farmer wants $1.25 a pound for them. Last year I got some from her and some from Vons; the ones from Vons were tastier and the pits were not split.
Sprouts has peaches for 49 cents/pound this week as well. I bought a bunch even though they were hard as a rock. Now they’re molding before they’re ripe! Anyone have any tips on ripening and storing peaches?
@alyssa,
I bought a few bushels that were picked a bit too early. They kept for up to a week before I started having too much of an issue with them going bad. In about two days they were nice and soft. If you have room, put them in your fridge. If not, place them in a cool location. Go through them and take out any that might look bad or have soft/damage spots on them. Peaches definantly go bad quicker than something like apples, so plan accordingly.
@alyssa, I live in the upstate of S Carolina. Our area ships more fresh peaches than any other place in the US. We used to go straight to the farm and pick them and the owner told us to not pick any peaches with green on them as they would not ripen. I never buy peaches with any green on them and I don’t usually have any problems with ripening.
I bought some yesterday and had the same thought to make some jam.
What can you do with canned peaches?
@Amanda, Most people just eat canned peaches as is. You can also make cobbler with them. I love to make jam with them!
I prefer to freeze them. Here in Kansas when it’s 104 out there is no way I am going to can a bunch of stuff. I know a lot of people enjoy canning but for the amount of work vs. savings it’s not worth it to me.
@Amanda, We eat these all winter long. Sometimes we have them plain, but most mornings I will combine them with other canned fruits for a fruit salad that we eat for breakfast along with homemade waffles, pancakes, or muffins. If you put them in the fridge, you can combine them with frozen fruits to make smoothies. I will also turn some of them into peach nectar (just blanch them, and then slice them into the blender, combine wit a tiny bit of ascorbic acid and a little sugar, and blend them up, and then can it). That is delicious on it’s own, in smoothies, or canned in tiny jars (4 oz. and 8 oz. jars) for baby food. I usually do that the last day of canning when the peaches are starting to get softer.
Hard peaches will soften in a day or two. If you want to do a bunch like I do, you can put a box or two in the fridge, and then they will last longer while you do the others.
Having canned fruit on hand will also help you if you can’t get to the store every week, or if, like me, you don’t have money to go to the store for several months. Having fruit on hand is a HUGE blessing when your income stops.