Monday, August 24, 2015

Peachy Keen!

 Anyone have one of these?  It's something I inherited from my mother-in-law.  Not sure what you'd call it, a steamer, a double boiler, or both?  It's made of aluminum.

The top section is a colander that fits right inside..

Then there are these two parts.

The pot fits in to make it into a double boiler.

And then this holey lid fits on top.  Not sure what it's purpose is.  The lid that fits on the whole thing has a steam valve.  

Not long ago when I was looking through the bottom part of the china cabinet, I came across this pot.  I couldn't really think of a use for it at the time, and considered sending it to the thrift store.  Glad I didn't though, because  this last week I was reminded what I actually did use it for a few times a year.

On the way back from Oliver a week and a half ago we stopped at a fruit stand in Keremeos, during that wind storm.  Was it ever crazy there.  About four mini dust storms blew through while we were there.  Everyone dashed for shelter or hunkered down, back to the wind, eyes squeezed shut.  I've never experienced that before.  The power was out there, but I still managed to get some peaches.  Most were 'seconds' at 25-30 cents a pound, and a 20 lb box of small peaches for 40 cents a pound.  Crazy.  Over 60 lbs of peaches for $18 total.  Now these are just your conventional farming type peaches.  Haven't checked in to what sprays are used on peaches, hopefully not too much.  Compare those to certified organic, biodynamically grown peaches sold next to us at the farmer's market, for $4 lb.  Their seconds are $2 lb.  Now I know which peaches I'd prefer to eat, but those prices are a bit hard to stomach.  People don't seem to mind paying it though.  We have traded left over mushrooms a few times for some organic peaches, so I'm saving those for us to eat this winter.  

Anyway, my inherited pot was great for blanching the peaches.  Fill it 2/3 full with water, bring it to a boil, fill it up with peaches and leave them in the pot for a few minutes, with the stove element on high.  Dump them in the sink, run cold water over them and rub the skins off.  Easy peasy.  I just pull them apart with my hands, get the pit out and then kind of mush them through my fingers into a measuring cup.  One thing I did find out though, is that the peaches have to be ripe, because the skin won't come off the unripe ones.

When I've got somewhere between 4 or 5 packed cups I bag them up and put them in the freezer.  Two bags for a batch of peach jam, and one bag added to the same amount of blueberries for blueberry peach jam, or the same amount of mangoes, for peachy mango jam.

I probably need to get another 60 lbs of peaches.
Hoping to make a trip back to the Okanagan with my SISTER:)! next week.  This week the Okanagan is suffering with terrible smoke, mostly drifted up from fires in the Okanogan area of Washington State.  The Testalinden Creek fire south of Oliver was only 50%  contained, not the 70 % I thought, and flared up again in spots, over the weekend.  I can't find an update on it today. 
We desperately need a lot of rain. 


  1. Looks like a good way to get rid of peach skins! I have a similar pot it is granite ware but no holy top. I hope the fires get put out soon. Have fun with your sister:)

  2. Mom remembers granny had one.back in the day. Boy those peaches look yummy
    Lily & Edward

  3. I've never seen such a "steamer" before but I can imagine it would work well for the peaches. Which look super yummy! DH wanted to freeze peaches we got in large freezer ziplock bags. I see you used ties and ordinary freezer bags. I sure hope mine stay shut. Maybe peaches won't be a problem because they freeze together but I've had blueberry bags open and what a mess to clean up in the freezer.

    1. Oh I've had all sorts of those messes. I'm always in the freezer moving bags around, trying to find something that is buried farther down. The feeble twist ties they give you with the freezer bags just pop right off if a bag is a bit stuck and you are pulling on the top. I did use some stronger thicker ties that came off something else to fasten the bags of peaches. I'm too cheap to buy the ziplock bags:) When I did buy them I tended to put too much in and then couldn't get the zipper closed. I had some bags once that if you pulled them too hard because the bag was stuck, they just ripped right in half. And if they were blueberries, well you know how that goes.


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