How to Preserve Peaches: Canning, Freezing, Drying

Nothing says summer like fresh peaches right from your homestead orchard. Unfortunately, we can’t keep them fresh year-round, so let’s look at how to preserve peaches for the off season.  

How to Preserve Peaches

​There are tons of recipes out there on how to preserve peaches, but they all fall into these categories:

1. canning
2. freezing
3. drying

Each method has its place on the homestead. Canning fruits and preserves creates a ready to eat, shelf-stable product for the larder. Freezing brings the freshest taste possible short of actually enjoying them fresh off the tree. Dehydrating and freeze-drying makes a lovely snack with the option to reconstitute with water if you’d like.

I encourage you to figure out what your personal needs are in your own home to decide which method is right for you. Personally, I like to to use a combination of preserving peaches because I like variety and diversity in my homestead kitchen.

Choosing Peaches to Preserve

Before you begin, you need to know which peaches are best for preserving. Start by choosing ripe peaches without hard or green spots. Look past the shades of red and check the yellow. If the yellow part of your fresh fruit is almost white or green, then the fruit isn’t ripe. Give those a few days on the counter before attempting to preserve them.

​Also, make sure that your fruits aren’t terribly bruised. Bruising causes mushy preserved fruit, and may be a place that rot begins.

Cling-free varieties of peaches are easier to peel before processing. Also known as “freestone” peaches, it is easier to remove the flesh from the pit. They’re generally larger, hybrid varieties of peaches, making them an excellent choice for anyone to grow in their backyard.

Getting Peaches Ready

To easily peel your peaches, start by blanching them. That means drop them into a large pot of boiling water for 20 seconds, then immediatly dunk them into ice water to stop the cooking process. Peels should easily come off after blanching.

Next, slice each fruit down the middle to remove the pit. You can save the pits and soak them in: (1) vinegar for a peach infused dressing, (2) minimum 80 proof alcohol for peach extract.

​Peaches are prone to browning (oxidation) once their insides are exposed to air. Oxidation doesn’t hurt the fruit so much, but it makes for a less appealing view of preserved food. 

To prevent browning, have an acid readily available to douse your fruit in. Lemon juice is easy to obtain, but it may leave your peaches tasting lemony. If you choose to use lemon juice, use a 50/50 ratio of lemon juice to water, and let your fruit soak in the solution while it awaits preserving.

My favorite way to prevent oxidation is to use a little citric acid. According to The American Chemical Society, “Citric acid is an important natural compound that has been known since the late 18th century.” 

Citric acid is easy to purchase, and it lasts for a long time in the kitchen. Just mix a teaspoon of citric acid per cup of water, and let your sliced fruit sit in the solution until you’re ready to use it.

How to Preserve Peaches by Canning

Now that we’ve selected the best peaches, and they’re ready, let’s look at how to preserve peaches by canning. Canning is a lovely way to get the work done up front, so that your pantry shelf has a ready to use product. You never have to worry about power outages with canned food, making this method great for sustainability. 

You may choose to can your peaches by hot pack, cold pack, or creating a preserve of sorts. When canning fruit, outside of preserves, you’ll need to make a simple syrup to can them in. You can decide whether you want a lite syrup or heavy syrup in your final product. Lighter syrups are best for sweet fruits like peaches.

Use the chart provided by Utah State University to decide which type of sugar syrup you’d like. It also gives clear instruction on ingredients and ratios for each type of simple syrup. 

Note: this isn’t a place to use sugar substitutes. The sugar is the preservative in the jar that keeps harmful bacteria from growing.

1. Canning by Hot Pack Method

• Start by cutting your fruit into your desired size, quarters or halves, and place the cut pieces into a pot with your syrup. 
• Heat the peaches and syrup to a boil. Fill hot jars with the hot fruit and top off with the hot syrup, leaving a 1/2 inch head space. 
• Remove air bubbles with a plastic debubbling tool, wipe the top of the jar with hot water, then secure new metal lids and rings. 
• Place in a water bath canner and cover with at least two inches of hot water. Bring to a rolling boil. 
• Let jars process at full boil for 20 minutes if using pints and 25 minutes for quarts. 
• Carefully remove jars from boiling water with jar lifter. 
• Allow them to sit undisturbed for 24 hours. Clean jars, label appropriately, and stock your shelves.

2. Canning by Cold Pack

Cold pack canning is largely the same as hot pack canning. The difference is that you’re going to start with room temperature fruit, room temperature syrup, and a room temperature water bath canner. It will take longer to come to a full boil, but once it does, process them for the same times at hot packing.

Cold pack will generally leave you with floating fruit too. I don’t like this in my jars because it seems to be a waste of space to me. The water retained in the peaches comes out during the processing time in the canner, leaving you with less than filled canning jars. The best results come with the hot pack method.

3. Canning in Jams, Jelly, Preserves

Peach butters, peach jam/jelly, and pie filling are all excellent uses of your fresh peaches.

You’ll need to follow a recipe of your liking for the product that you’re looking to create. One of my favorite ways to preserve peaches is this peach pepper jelly recipe.

​Peach Pepper Jelly:

• ​Four cups of mashed peaches. Heat them to lightly cook, then blend or mash.
• Cut the stems off of roughly 10 hot peppers of your choice. Leave some seeds if you’re brave. If you like it really hot, go with habanero or reaper. If you’re a mild pepper lover, use jalapenos or poblanos. Add chopped peppers to the peach mash.
• Pour in a cup of apple cider vinegar.
• Add four cups of sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves.
• Bring to a boil.
• Add a box of pectin mixed into a fifth cup of sugar.
• Return to boil for 2 minutes.
• Fill jars to a 1/4 inch head space.
• Remove bubbles with a debubbler tool, wipe tops of jars with hot water, and secure new lids and rings.
• Process in water bath canner for 10 minutes in half pint jars or 15 minutes in pint jars. 
• Lift from boiling water and allow to sit on counter for 24 hours undisturbed.
• Clean jars, appropriately label, and stock your pantry shelves (or gift them to friends and family).

How to Preserve Peaches by Freezing

Freezing peaches is the closest to fresh in my opinion. You have options here too for different methods of freezing. Another perk of frozen peaches, is that you can quickly process them this way until you have more time for lengthier projects later, such as pie filling or jams.

1. The Easiest Method

Once you’ve peeled your peaches, as instructed above, remove pits, and cut them in halves. Now place peach halves into a freezer bag. I like to use a vacuum sealer to remove all of the air, preventing freezer burn. Label your bags with the date, and freeze.

You can pull these out for a quick dessert or use them frozen, which is why I love freezing peaches so much. They make delicious late summer snacks or quick additions to smoothies, and they’re far cheaper than frozen peaches from the grocery store.

2. Sugar Pack

​This method of how to preserve peaches is simple too, but it uses added sugar.

• Peel peaches, remove pits, and slice them into even slices. 
• Place some of your peach slices into a single layer in the bottom of a jar. 
• Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and repeat the peaches and sugar layers to fill the jar. 
• Leave a 1 inch headspace in quart jars and 1/2 inch in pints. 
• Secure lids and let them sit 15-30 minutes, while the sugar pulls juices from the peach slices. 
• Freeze.

To use them, allow the entire jar to thaw before removing peaches. 

How to Preserve Peaches by Drying

Drying peaches makes a great ready to use snack, but you also have the option to rehydrate to use in a dish. You can dry your peaches in a dehydrator or a freeze-dryer.

Soak your sliced peaches in one of the acid solutions previously mentioned. This step is especially necessary for drying. While you can expect some darkening, you don’t want brown fruit. 

1. How to Preserve Peaches by Dehydrating

To dehydrate your peaches, place thin slices on drying racks. In your dehydrator or oven, run at 135°F for 8-12 hours. Depending on how humid the atmosphere is in your location, you may need to run your dehydrator longer. 

You’re looking to pull out as much moisture as possible, but you probably won’t get a crunchy, dried fruit. You should get some crispy edges though. The more moisture that is left in your dehydrated food, the shorter the shelf life.

Once dried, place your dehydrated peaches into an air tight container and store in a cool, dark place for the longest possible shelf life. Your dehydrated peach slices should last a year on the shelf, if left unopened.

Enjoy dehydrated food as a snack, or add it to granola or trail mixes, yogurt, or quick breads, just to name a few ways.

2. How to Preserve Peaches by Freeze Drying

While freeze dryers are still new on the scene, more and more homesteaders are using them to preserve food in their kitchens. The freeze dryer pulls out even more water than dehydrating so that the shelf life of the dried food is longer, up to 20 years in some cases. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions with your freeze dryer for your peaches.

Freeze dried food has the benefit of reconstituting back so that the product is closer to its original version than simply dehydrating by adding it to cold water. Again, follow the instructions supplied by the manufacturer of your freeze dryer for specific amounts of food and water.

Summary of How To Preserve Peaches

Whether you choose to can, freeze or dry, I hope these options on how to preserve peaches gives you the inspiration you need to stock your homestead pantry. Grow it yourself, or buy it in bulk from your farmer’s market; whichever you like, add peaches to your inventory today.

Happy Homesteading!

Donna and her family have been homesteading for most of their 20+  years together in some shape or fashion. She currently lives on their 20 acre farm where they grow as much food as possible. What started as a just a few laying hens, has grown into large gardens, pastured poultry, pork, and lamb. They are continuously evolving their small farm to not suit their family’s needs, but also providing to their local community. Donna’s favorite part of the family farm is her self-built micro-dairy, where she gets to love on dairy cows while serving her local community. Milking, cheesemaking, and processing dairy have become the soul of their homestead and the center of their farm.