I spent the weekend peeling and pitting a hundred pounds of peaches for canning and was left with overflowing bowls of peach peels, skins and off cuts. Usually we give our kitchen scraps to the chickens and rabbits, but this was just TOO much. I’m not sure if a chicken can get a bad belly, but if anything will do it, peach peels will.
But, I couldn’t “just” compost. I mean, the chickens would get them anyway if I did that, and I didn’t want to toss them, so I looked beyond their browned edges and slimy bits and saw some beauty.
I tossed the whole mess, peach peels and pits included, into a huge pot. Added water, a bit of sugar (not much!) and simmered it on the stove for a few hours.
I was left with this epic peachy stew.
From there, we strained, and smashed and worked it so that any obvious “particles” were removed.
We passed it through the strainer about 6 times – working to get the sauce as clear as possible. In the end we had about 14 cups of liquid from almost 100 peaches.
We seasoned with sugar and lemon juice, added pectin (according to the package instructions) and canned it as jelly. It ended up being light and delicate, and perfect for a buttery english muffin.
BUT, we still had a leftover MASH of peach skins to deal with… still too much to hand out to the hens.
This was added into mason jars, and topped with VODKA and sugar. It will sit in a dark corner for 2 months, being turned every few days until it becomes and (to die for) peach liqueur, perfecting for making cocktails or drinking straight up!
In the end, from our 100 peaches, we got 2 dozen jars of peach jelly, 24 1L jars of canned peaches, and 6 1L jars of “peach liqueur”… oh, and 100 peach pits and NO other waste.
I think we used all we could this time.
14 Comments
[…] And, if you get massive food guilt by looking at all the left over peach flesh on the skins and pits, check out the two AMAZING recipes I have to make Peach Skin Jelly and Peach Liqueur. […]
Super cool. All of them look yummy. Nice job.
I’ve never heard of doing this with peach peels! My mom used to can peaches every year and just compost them! Now, thanks to you, I know better!
Wow, I did not know this was even possible …..Thank you so much for sharing =) This is something I will be definitely trying at home =)
[…] can peaches, plums and pears, and also home-brew a lot of the fruit into homemade […]
thanks for the info. I had wanted to see how much i could get out my peaches. i had tried this with tomatoes and used every part of them. thanks again keep up the good work
How did you make the peach liquor? How much sugar and water did you add to a jar? What size of jar and how much mash?
Did you process the liquor? Or just leave it on the shelf?
What about all the insecticides required to spray on peach trees to get the peaches? Is that no worries since it’s sprayed before the peaches are formed?
wash your peaches. Simple. Doesn’t matter if you make jam, syrup or schnapps. Trees get sprayed all over the word. Best we can do is wash them.
I know you posted this 3 years ago but I have 3 quarts of mash I want to make into the liqueur. Can you give me an idea of how much sugar, vodka & mash? Thanks so much for the inspiration. I put up 18 quarts of peaches tonight and was grateful to be able to use all those peels. Even have some in the oven drying to make some peach sugar.
I used VERY little sugar actually, more of just a touch! Probably 2TBS per large mason jar.
I saw it possible to make a Peach extract?
I take the peels, puree in a vitamix until they are a beautiful slurry, then add to the recipes.
Enhances the peach flavor without the fuzz.
I got this idea from making NYT Jerelle Guy’s peach pound cake which purees the peels with powdered sugar for the glaze. The perfume of peach exudes from the finished cake. Magic.