We love peach smoothies and cobbler. To keep local fruit in our home year-round, I freeze them for long keeping.

I buy fruit by the full flat case. We love freestone peaches and they are in full season from Eastern Washington right now. We are lucky to be just on the other side of the mountains from luscious peach orchards. A full flat is 25 pounds and contains about six dozen medium fruits. That is just enough for us to enjoy ripe fruit now and put the rest away for the rest of the year.

I freeze peaches in three steps. First is freeze slices individually. I leave the skins on most of them. If you are storing any for pie filling you may want them skinned.

1. Wash the fruit.

If you don't like the skin, remove it by blanching:

 Slice around the pit in 2 perpendicular cuts.

Drop into a pot of slowly boiling after for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Place in an ice bath and remove the skin.

2. Run paring knife around the pit in full circles. Aim for ¼-½ slices, pull off the pit and place on a baking sheet in one layer.

3. Freeze until solid, about 12 hours. Place into freezer bags with dates labeled. Squeeze air out. In a refrigerator freezer they will keep 4 months. In a deep freeze they will keep a year. For maximum shelf life, vacuum seal and deep freeze. This way they should keep two years.

All photos courtesy Mamikaze Recipes