A Peck of Pickled.... Peaches?

So to be completely upfront, these peaches are not from my foodshed. I bought them on sale at Whole Foods. They're from South Carolina. But it was such a great price, and I've been wanting to do a fruit, I couldn't pass them up. They were a little greener than I wanted to use, so I ripened them in a paper bag for a couple of days. And I really should have kept a closer eye on them. I probably should have processed them on Sunday, because today they were luscious and juicy and delicious. But Sunday I was tired and feeling lazy. And the power went out for several hours, yeah, so I had to lay around and do nothing, yeah, and so I let my peaches get a little too ripe for pickling. So if they turn out a little mushy, I will have learned a lesson. But we learn more from our failures, right? And this whole thing is about experimenting and learning and blah blah blah. Don't worry, though, I'm not messing with my pH or my acidity. Nobody's getting botulism on my watch.

So it started out simple enough. Boil some sugar and some vinegar with some spices (I added some extras to the "Traditional Southern Spiced Pickled Peaches" recipe I had. Cardamom, allspice, more ginger....) let that steep for an hour while I peeled my 6 pounds of peaches. No biggie. You all know how to peel a peach (just like you do tomatoes): drop it in boiling water for 30 seconds or so, then ice bath!

The skins slip right off. It's actually super fun. Then cut 'em in half, pop out the pit (thank goodness for freestone peaches!) and into acidulated water so they don't brown. Really basic stuff here. While I was peeling the peaches, I had my canner going, getting my pint jars nice and sterile. The basic routine. Peaches done, jars sterile, add peaches to pickling liquid to get everything nice and hot. Then the fun part. Packing the peaches curved side down to avoid the cavities filling with air. Much harder than it sounds. I'm sure it'll get easier with practice, but my goodness those things are slippery and geez was everything hotter than hell! But I did succeed in packing six pints:

Then filling them with the pickling liquid, getting what I thought were all the air bubbles out, putting on the lids, and processing. But somehow when all the jars were full, I still had over a quart of delicious sweet peach vinegar left!!

I processed a pint of it to keep, but this jar is going in the fridge... not sure what to do with it. Mix with greek yogurt as a topping for fruit salad? I'm open to suggestions. Or if anyone wants some I'll gladly give out half pint jars... just hit me up!

So, the end result:

Six super yummy looking pints of spiced pickled peaches (that's a big chunk of ginger in the bottom of the jar on the left. YUM!) I hear they go great with cheesecake.... who out there's a baker?

One last question. All of my recipes suggest a specific waiting time before you taste them. But this one doesn't. Who thinks I should take these to the potluck at Polyface Farm next weekend as part of my pickle platter? Vote in the comments or on my Facebook!