How to Store Peaches: 6 Ways to Preserve Fresh Peaches

Peaches are a kind of stone fruit with fuzzy skin that can range from yellow to orange to soft red. There is an inedible pit in the center of the peach surrounded by juicy, sweet yellow flesh. In the United States, peach season runs from May through September, making peaches a popular fruit in summer desserts, such as peach cobbler, peach pie, peach ice cream, and peach jam.

Grocery stores and farmers' markets sell peaches in various stages of ripeness, but you can use a few techniques to determine which peaches are ripe. To choose ripe peaches, look for a firm peach with a slight give to its skin. It should have a sweet smell and no green color on its skin. A fully ripe peach has dark yellow skin that complements sunset colors—orange and red—if it receives direct sun exposure. Unripe peaches are hard to the touch and have a neutral smell.

Proper storage is important to keep peaches fresh since oxidation turns cut peaches brown, and whole peaches overripen as they produce increasing amounts of ethylene gas. Extend the shelf life of your peaches by using one of these six storage methods:

• Apply lemon juice. As with apples, potatoes, and avocados, you can use lemon juice to prevent peaches from browning. Sprinkle lemon juice directly on the fruit’s flesh or submerge the cut peaches in a mixture of lemon juice and cold water. The acid in the lemon juice inactivates polyphenol oxidase, enzymes that discolor fruit.
• Blanch the peaches and then freeze them. Score an “X” on the bottom of each peach before you begin to blanch peaches. Carefully place the whole, fresh peaches into boiling water for about thirty to sixty seconds. Then plunge the peaches immediately into a bowl of ice water. Peel the peaches and freeze the whole or sliced peaches in a plastic freezer bag. Alternatively, places the slices in a single layer on a baking sheet and add them to the freezer. Once the peaches are fully frozen, you can transfer them to a plastic bag or another container. Frozen peaches take on moisture and are mushy after thawing, but that works well for many peach recipes. Freeze peaches for use in smoothies, peach jam, or peach ice cream.
• Refrigerate cut peaches in an airtight container. Cut ripe peaches into slices or cubes and store them in the refrigerator for up to five days in an airtight container. The cold air prevents the peaches from ripening further, and the airtight container prevents the peaches from turning brown.
• Ripen peaches in a paper bag. Keep unripe peaches in a brown paper bag on the kitchen counter (and at room temperature) to ripen peaches more quickly. Once the peaches ripen, use them right away, freeze them, refrigerate them in an airtight container, or purée them to keep them from spoiling.
• Submerge peach slices in sugar syrup. To preserve sliced peaches for later use, can peaches in sugar syrup to preserve them for up to one year. Make a sugar syrup of equal parts granulated sugar and water and acquire a canning jar or other glass jar with an airtight lid. Fill the jar with the sliced peaches and top off the jar with the sugar syrup. These peaches will work well in fruit salads, desserts, and jams.
• Use ascorbic acid. Mix ascorbic acid or powder from vitamin C supplements with water to create a diluted solution. Submerge sliced peaches in the solution, leaving a little space at the top of your jar or storage container. This method works well for freezing or canning peaches to use later in peach recipes.

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