Summer Fruit... Stockpiling for Winter

I think so far we made it through 25 lbs of peaches (HG Hills in Fairview has them for $10 a box!), 23 lbs of strawberries and 10 pineapples... summertime is my favorite!  So what do we do with all that fruit?  I'd love to say that I make jelly, but I'm not there yet.. I plan on buying some jars soon to try my hand at it (found a coupon! :)  

For now we do 2 things: Dry and Freeze.  Freezing is probably the best thing to do for us because dried fruit doesn't last long around here.. the 5 pineapples I dried were gone in a matter of 3 days.  Luckily my family doesn't like the peaches I dried (they are probably my fav) so I get them all to myself!

Here's how to do it:

1. Prep the fruit.  Wash, blanch (if there is a peel that needs to come off) and pit the fruit.  To blanch, bring a large pot of water to boiling and put your fruit in for about a minute.  Remove and rinse under cool water.  They are so easy to peel with your fingers- comes right off!  (If you hate tomato peels, this works for those too... thanks grandma! :)  I let my girls help me with the peeling process- here is what my 5 year old accomplished:

Here is what my 3 year old accomplished:

LOL!  She was cracking me up, and totally had a great time doing it :)

2. Cut it up.  For drying go a little thinner.. I usually do my peaches/pineapples about 1/4- 1/3 inch.  For freezing, just whatever your blender can handle for smoothies.  

3.  Spread the fruit.  For drying, single layer as shown: For freezing, put a single layer on cookie sheets and pop into the freezer.  This helps your fruit freeze without sticking together.  After it freezes (or gets close to freezing) put it in freezer bags.

There ya have it!  Easy, huh?  And you'll get to enjoy the fruit year round dried or in smoothies. You can also thaw your fruit for muffins.. yummmm  Check out my favorite berry muffin recipe HERE.  

Anybody have any other ideas for stockpiling fruit?