Peaches Galore

I finally harvested the rest of my peaches today for the season. I had been taking 10-20lbs off at a time and when they were ready. I kinda wanted to be done with them and move on to something else, so I harvested everything.  I ended up with about 90lbs today so around 130 to 150lbs total. It was my best crop yet. I always keep the peaches organic and work around the bug and bird bites. I have cut up a ton for freezing and dehydrating. I was surprised at how much my son and husband love them dehydrated. I have never done that before with peaches.

 I have been doing peach fruit leathers or "roll ups" too. I did one banana and 6-8 peaches depending on the size and blend till smooth, adding stevia to sweeten if needed. I poured them out on the teflex sheets that you can buy with the Excalibur dehydrator and smoothed them out to about 1/8 -1/4 inch. I just dehydrate overnight and check them in the morning. I peel them from the sheet and roll them up on parchment paper then cut them into 4ths.

 I put a little tape in place to hold them closed and put them in zip lock bags to store. You could also wrap them in plastic wrap. These are great snacks for your purse for snacks or school lunches. I plan on doing other fruits also, especially apples and cinnamon.

The fruit roll ups you get in the store are full of  tons of chemicals and sugar. These are wonderful alternatives and don't take much time to make and store.

 

Homesteading tip:

 

If you over dehydrate the roll ups and they're too brittle leave out until they rehydrate some moisture from the air and are pliable again. You can also boil a little water in the kitchen to help the moisture along.  Also, when fresh fruit isn't available thaw some frozen fruit, blend and dehydrate.