Peach price

How much is everyone paying per pound?

Local supermarket has it on sale until today for .99 cents/lb.

Thinking about maybe buying 40 or 50 pounds for a 5gal batch.

Any farm markets in your area?? If so, stop and talk to them and ask if anyone if growing peaches and buy a bushel or 2. That way the fruit would actually be ripe when picked and have flavor. Unlike stuff bought in stores picked green and treated to look ripe.

I bought 2 bushels for 90 bucks. .99 ain't bad but you can do better try the farmers market

Today in Illinois 85 cents a pound at Hy-Vee.

I pay $15 per box of peaches. Never had it weighed to see what it is per pounds. 40-50 lbs seems like a wonderful amount for 5 gallons. I will have to rethink my amount now.

Price is important but How Ripe are they? When were they picked? Most supermarket fruit was picked at least a week before it shows up on their display - well before it fully ripe.

Local Fruit stands are a better bet and like someone else said if there is one near you talk to them about getting their culls/over ripe and soft fruit. You can cut off spoiled parts and have really ripe fruit with better tastes and higher sugar content. Not mention probably avoiding the special treatment that store do to keep the fruit looking better longer. Not all farmers markets are a good deal - some hike the price because they are selling 'fresher fruit' - Ran into that last year local farmers markets were about 25-40% higher priced than even Walmart/Sams club.
Don't forget you can always slice and freeze smaller qty of fruit bought from that fruit stand until you have enough for your full batch. The freezing/thawing will actually will help break down the fruit better for fermentation purposes.

geek said:

How much is everyone paying per pound?

Local supermarket has it on sale until today for .99 cents/lb.

Thinking about maybe buying 40 or 50 pounds for a 5gal batch.

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Hi Varis...

I think that's a fair price but I think I did better picking my own @ March Farms in Litchfield County [I'd guess an ~ 40 minute drive from your house]. Peaches are an easy pick compared to Strawberry, Blueberry,etc..

Also, now with several peach wines under my belt, I feel 25-30 pounds is, for my taste, sufficient for 6 gallons. Makes a nice lite subtle peach wine.

I've basically used the DB recipe substituting acid blend for the lemon juice and adding bentonite to primary.

Save some peach for tweaking you next Riesling or some other white wine... awesome!

"Also, now with several peach wines under my belt, I feel 25-30 pounds is, for my taste, sufficient for 6 gallons. Makes a nice lite subtle peach wine."

Agree whole heartedly - A light tasting wine is a pleasure - flavor doesn't have to blow you away. 5-6 lbs is certainly enough.

I purchased a couple pounds yesterday but they are not ripe enough. I will use these for eating purposes but may freeze a few to add to this WE LE16 Gewürztraminer Verdelho Muscat which is being racked from primary today. We'll see.

For the peach wine, I agree Bill, I think I am going to wait a bit and check at the farm instead.

You guys are killing me - I told the wife I was going to put any more wine making on hold until the fall - but this talk about going to farms and fruit stands has me wanting to start gathering more peaches for wine - since they won't be around in another month or two. ( At least not at prices I am willing to pay)

geek said:

I purchased a couple pounds yesterday but they are not ripe enough. I will use these for eating purposes but may freeze a few to add to this WE LE16 Gewürztraminer Verdelho Muscat which is being racked from primary today. We'll see.

For the peach wine, I agree Bill, I think I am going to wait a bit and check at the farm instead.

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You'll often find the "ripe" peaches on the ground. I suggest you leave them there and pick those off the tree that are just about to ripen. Pick what you need. Place some clean towels on a table, place the unripened peaches on the towels and cover the peaches with clean plastic garbage bags. Check each day and pick out the now ripened peaches, quarter and de-stone [I then spritz with k-meta but don't know if this is really necessary] and freeze.

Scooter68 said:

You guys are killing me - I told the wife I was going to put any more wine making on hold until the fall - but this talk about going to farms and fruit stands has me wanting to start gathering more peaches for wine - since they won't be around in another month or two. ( At least not at prices I am willing to pay)

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Well, so long as you have the freezer space you can pick or buy your fruit now, process and freeze and not start your wine making until the fall. No credibility lost with your wife.

bkisel said:

You'll often find the "ripe" peaches on the ground. I suggest you leave them there and pick those off the tree that are just about to ripen. Pick what you need. Place some clean towels on a table, place the unripened peaches on the towels and cover the peaches with clean plastic garbage bags. Check each day and pick out the now ripened peaches, quarter and de-stone [I then spritz with k-meta but don't know if this is really necessary] and freeze.

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Bill, what month did you pick your peaches last year? Wasn't it until late August?

geek said:

Bill, what month did you pick your peaches last year? Wasn't it until late August?

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Yes, just asked Janet and she remembers late August. [But that was two years ago. We were settling into our new home in PA last August. Time sure flies by doesn't it Varis? ]

Their site says starts Friday, August 7 but that must not have been updated from last year. You can contact them @ (203)266-7721 for this years picking schedule.

bkisel said:

Well, so long as you have the freezer space you can pick or buy your fruit now, process and freeze and not start your wine making until the fall. No credibility lost with your wife.

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Yes, I can make some space, All I have to do is take out some of the blackberries from last year and use them to start a batch of wine. Ooop! Nope that won't work.
Actually can find some space if I can find the peaches.

Still picking blackberries we are having just enough rain to keep them from drying up in the heat. Blueberries done, Black Raspberries not enough for wine this year. Probably try to get a couple of gallons of BlackBerry starte in the fall along with some Wine concentrate I recently bought, Shoulder surgery and weather didn't help me out this year but that's OK got enough in the basement a year (69 bottles and 2 gallons aging to be bottled)

Ok, the wife's been out of town so I went to the local fruit stand and struck a deal. Picked up 36 lbs of slightly over-ripe peaches for $15.00. (about 42 cents a pound) I gave them a 250ml (Half size) bottle of my latest peach wine just because - not part of the deal. She had already set her price before I gave them the wine. The peaches are really in pretty good shape actually. I ate a lot of the soft spot that to see how they tasted. Almost no spoiled spots at all - so I'm happy. Already cut up and bagged 16 lbs of peaches to freeze and after doing that I had just under 2 lbs of pits and waste peach, I even cut away some of the greener stuff around the stems. Still have a lot more to cut up but Got a pork loin to smoke now so the peaches will have to chill out until tomorrow.

Scooter68 said:

Ok, the wife's been out of town so I went to the local fruit stand and struck a deal. Picked up 36 lbs of slightly over-ripe peaches for $15.00. (about 42 cents a pound) I gave them a 250ml (Half size) bottle of my latest peach wine just because - not part of the deal. She had already set her price before I gave them the wine. The peaches are really in pretty good shape actually. I ate a lot of the soft spot that to see how they tasted. Almost no spoiled spots at all - so I'm happy. Already cut up and bagged 16 lbs of peaches to freeze and after doing that I had just under 2 lbs of pits and waste peach, I even cut away some of the greener stuff around the stems. Still have a lot more to cut up but Got a pork loin to smoke now so the peaches will have to chill out until tomorrow.

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That reads like a good score. Good on ya mate (I think that's what our friends in Australia say.).

I don't really see fruit stands around here, need to venture out to another town and check.

Varies, we also got our over ripe peaches from a oechard/fruit stand. $10-15 a box. The $10 boxes were almost too ripe, had to cut out spots, but they were juicey. This was in Ga Mtns. Still have 30 ish bottles of Peach Wine from 2011 & 12. Awesome. Roy

save me a bottle Roy...