[cheshirecheese]

Very excited as I've got lots of lovely looking peaches on my cordoned peach tree.  I had some last year, but they dropped before ripe and the wasps got most of them before I did!  However, this year I'm determined I'll get there first but don't want to pick them too soon.  I've never tried bottling peaches - do they have to be really ripe before doing so?  If not I reckon I could pick them now because they've coloured really nicely.  Any advice gratefully received

[sunshineband]

I don't have a recipe as such, I just kind of do it, if you see what I mean, when I can get some peaches cheap in the local market.

Make a syrup with about 12 oz granulated sugar in 1 litre of water (mixed measurements, sorry!) and keep it warm

Put peaches in a bowl of boiling water for a couple of minutes, then slip of their skins, halve them and take out the stones

Stuff them into sterilised, warm jars and pour over syrup. Leave about 1cm space and then screw on lids.  Tighten when cold.

Last for ages 

[Trillium]

I do the same as Sunny, but I slice mine rather than just halve them so they're ready to dish out for eating.

I use peaches that are close to ripe and which are ripe. Doing them too soon doesn't have much flavour developed yet.

Peach jam is also very very nice. For that I chop up the peaches finer and use a bit of the juice as well. I do mine only in half pint jars as I find it spoils too fast in larger jars.

[sunshineband]

We eat ours as halves, filled with home made icecream or something else scrummy  --

Slices would give a whole new dimension 

[Val H]

There's a series of articles here: http://www.allotment-garden.org/allotment_foods/bottling-canning/Bottling-Canning-Preparation.php which you might find helpful.

[cheshirecheese]

Many thanks for all the above - I've just picked the first one (or rather it fell into my hand!), and it was delicious so they're obviously ripening well and I'll be able to bottle them any time soon!