Putting up Peaches August 24, 2011

This post was shared on Real Food Whole Health: Fresh Bites Friday on 8/26/2011!

I was lucky enough to hear about a great deal on a lug (about 22 lbs) of heirloom Fay Elberta Peaches from the local and wonderful Chaffin Family Orchards. I love the idea (along with the taste and beauty) of heirloom produce. A quick search about Fay Alberta heirloom peaches brought me to this info from LocalHarvest.org:

The Fay Elberta is a yellow-fleshed freestone peach. The skin is fuzzy and yellow with a red blush. The peach is firm with a fine texture, and has a spicy aroma and a rich, distinctive flavor. It ripens in early August. The Fay Elberta is a rare find in California’s stone fruit regions, and is currently a threatened variety. Fortunately, several farms throughout the state offer either nursery stock or fresh fruit itself, making the Fay Elberta an accessible and delicious crop.

So I preordered my lug and picked it up first thing at the Saturday Downtown Farmer’s Market!

 

Now I had about 22 lbs of peaches and needed to figure out what to do with them – QUICK – cause they were ripe! Well, a bunch were cut up and eaten gobbled up by Bizz & BooBoo. I debated making jam, but honestly I don’t love peach jam and was afraid it wouldn’t get used and enjoyed. So I decided to dehydrate and freeze them.

I used a very sharp knife since the peaches were quite ripe so as not to crush them when cutting. Started by just slicing them in rounds or in half and then slices and layering on the dehydrator racks.

 

I read a few places to treat the peaches with acid (lemon juice, etc) to maintain color. I didn’t worry about this. I don’t mind if my fruit discolors as it does not affect the taste! Wasn’t sure how long it would take and I knew I had peaches of varying thickness so I just checked and rotated my trays pretty often.

The majority of the peaches took between 5-8 hrs to dry. I did burn one tray worth that I apparently cut too thin… Oops!

Here are the peaches after a few hours of drying:

And here is a batch that was done drying:

I had as many peaches as I could drying in the dehydrator so time to get to the freezing for making smoothies! I love a smoothie with some peach flavor! I cut the peaches into chunks that I figured I would use in a smoothie and placed them on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper to freeze. They were in no way uniform, just whatever worked!

While the peaches were freezing, supposed to take a minimum of 2 hours (they ended up on the cookie sheet in the freezer overnight!) I decided to make a peach smoothie! And I used one of the awesome new glass straws that I won in a blog giveaway from A Delicious Obsession and Glass Dharma!! It was delicious.

This is how the peaches looked once they were frozen and ready to go into the freezer for long-term storage:

 

At this point I was pretty tired of slicing peaches – so I left the rest and we took off for an afternoon picnic and fishing along Deer Creek.

 

Important note – Fresh, ripe peaches start to go bad very quickly. The peaches I had left I didn’t have room to refrigerate so they sat out in room temp for a couple of days and started to go bad pretty quick. Next time I get a large quantity of produce I will make SURE I set aside the time to get them ALL put up!

Thanks to Kaylin for helping me get the last few cut up and frozen – and at least my worms in the compost bin had en extra tasty treat 🙂

~Jesse

PS – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AMAZING AND WONDERFUL SISTER TODAY! Love you Amy Jo!!

Greenfeet – Organic Chico Produce and Nut Wash – Review/Giveaway – Ends 8/31 August 15, 2011

Good things come in small packages. That is the case with this cool new product I got to try!

I was so excited to be contacted by Valerie Reddemann, Founder/President of Greenfeet: The Planet’s Homestore , to do this review and giveaway. I have been a fan of greenfeet for many years – I love that they are local to Chico and they have an amazing array of affordable eco-friendly products. Some of my favorite items I have gotten from greenfeet include my Frigoverre 1/2 gallon glass pitchers that I store my raw milk in every week and my cast iron griddle handle cover to keep me from burning my hands!

Now on to the Organic Chico Produce & Nut Wash that I reviewed – Here are some basics from the greenfeet website about it:

New FDA Accepted Organic, All-Natural Produce Wash and Sanitizer Removes Dangerous bacteria From Raw Veggies & Nuts

Organic Chico Wash removes 99.999% salmonella and E. Coli in 30-90 seconds. It’s revolutionizing food safety.

The secret? a powerful Citric Acid blend. This formula has received numerous awards, is an FDA accepted natural sanitizer AND is certified by the WSDA-USDA that the ingredients comply with the National Organic Program Program (NOP) regulations.

• Wash or spray dangerous bacteria such as salmonella or E.Coli off of foods – this is especially great for items where you don’t know the source
• Fruits, vegetables or nut meats. It works on all of them
• FDA accepted. Non-toxic. Food grade. All-natural

Organic Chico Wash has been lab tested for removal of E.Coli 0157:H7, Salmonella enteritidis serovar typhimuium and Aflatoxin and mold. Organic Chico Wash meets FDA requirements of 5 log reductions in 30 seconds (in other words, it kills all the bad stuff FAST)          

How cool is that! I love the fact that it is so compact by coming as a concentrate and that it is not bringing more toxicity into my house!

I was getting ready to take care of my last batch of Kombucha that was done brewing and I like to add some fruit to it and give it some additional flavor. I am always extra careful about washing the fruit I am putting in my Kombucha to keep all the healthy stuff active and not add any chlorines (Did you know that the majority of produce washes contain chlorine?)

I had a few plums I purchased from Chico Natural Foods (didn’t get a chance to hit the farmer’s market yet this week) and I went to work on them.

First I poured the concentrate into my spray bottle (reused from an old bottle of store-bought cleaner and washed thoroughly!)

I must admit that I was a little taken aback by the color of the concentrate. For some reason I was expecting a clearer color or maybe an orange/yellowish since it is a citrus acid blend – so the brown threw me off. But it doesn’t  have any odor, and honestly, who cares about the color if it is safe and non-toxic!

Next I added some distilled water to fill the bottle. I didn’t want to use tap water or non-filtered water, since the whole purpose of using this is to get the chlorine out of our produce wash.

  

I put on the spray cap and sprayed my plums! It said 30-90 seconds so I set the timer for 2 mins and finished getting my kombucha finished.

Then I rinsed them off in clean water as directed and voila – clean plums that I feel confident have no yucky stuff on them since I don’t know who touched them last or where exactly they came from…

So easy and wonderful. I recommend this product to everyone. I am the first to admit that I am lazy in the kitchen – I hate to peel fruit and veggies when I don’t have to – AND there are usually a lot of nutrients in the peel that I don’t want to get rid of.

A quick, easy and all natural product like this makes me feel better about cleaning my fruits and veggies that I don’t peel!

Some other reasons I am excited about this product:

• Taking it camping for quick and easy cleanup on cutting boards, etc.
• Using it on all fruits and veggies that I use when fermenting – not good to have chlorine in fermented foods.
• My 4 yr old son helps we wash veggies a lot and I feel at ease letting him use this product.

You can purchase it at Greenfeet for the low price of $5.95 – and if you live in Chico you can pick it up at their warehouse for FREE! If not they can ship it right out to you 🙂

~Jesse

 

**Update 8/18 – Since this is my first giveaway and it has come to my attention it may be the first time many of you have entered a blog giveaway I found this great video online on “how to” enter a blog giveaway! Please check it out and let me know if you have any confusion about how to enter!!

WIN IT!

___

This giveaway is now closed!

Congrats to the winner:

Tia Says: August 23, 2011 at 6:33 am e

#18. I follow @BizzBooBoo on Twitter as @TiaSweepstakes. tiasweepstakes@gmail.com

Check your email Tia and contact me to claim your prize!

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Greenfeet has generously offered to give one bottle of Organic Chico Produce & Nut Wash (value $5.95) to a Bizz & BooBoo reader!

Open to anyone 18 years and older in the US only! Giveaway will end on Wednesday 8/31 at 11:59pm PST.

Leave a comment for each entry – mandatory entry must be done before any others – please leave your email in the comment! If I cannot verify your entry, it will not count. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be picked.

Mandatory Entry:

Subscribe to the Bizz & BooBoo Blog (see right sidebar) AND go to Greenfeet and tell me one thing you learned about the produce wash that I didn’t mention above!

Additional Entries:

You must leave a comment for each entry!

Like Greenfeet on Facebook (leave your username)

Sign up for “Today’s Greenfeet Value” (the right hand side of their homepage)

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Follow @BizzBooBoo on Twitter (leave your username)

Tweet about this giveaway and leave the  direct link in your comment

Sample Tweet: “Enter to #win Organic Produce & Nut Wash from @grndiva & @BizzBooBoo #giveaway Ends 8/31 https://bizzandbooboo.wordpress.com”

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Make a relevant comment on any non-giveaway post!

Happy entering and Good Luck!

Disclosure: The product provided for this review was given to me free of charge from the company. The product offered for the giveaway is free of charge, no purchase necessary. Any opinions expressed are my own honest opinions and are not influenced by any form of compensation. This giveaway is in no way connected to or endorsed by Facebook. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.