Freezing Fruit

I buy peaches by the bushel when they are on in Michigan and can them - yes remove the peels by boiling for 2 min and plunging in a sink full of ice water, then the skins peel right off. I freeze berries - blueberries, raspberries, strawberries all freeze really well.

I blanch peaches to make them easy to peel. Then slice and freeze as below on baking sheets. Then pop into freezer bags. You want the pieces of fruit to freeze separately. It helps for most things for them to be dry when you start.

It depends on what you want to do with the fruit when you take it out. It should go in the way you want to use it when you pull it back out. If you are using the peaches for a smoothie or something you can probably leave the skin on, but if you want it in a pie then the skin might be better taken off. The suggestion about freezing them separately is a good one, especially if you want to use it in smoothies or yogurt or something like that where you just want a little at a time. I've also frozen in ziplock bags in the appropriate amount for a recipe and then I know I'm going to thaw it all so I don't worry about keeping the fruit separated. You could also make it into jelly or jam or sauce and freeze or can it that way.

If you want to freeze cherries, be sure to pit them prior to freezing. (Trying to pit them after you have frozen & thawed them is a big 'ol mess!) After pitting them, line a cookie sheet with wax paper and lay the cherries on the sheet without any layering...then slip the cookie sheet into the freezer. After the cherries are fully frozen, then you can transfer the frozen cherries into freezer bags and the cherries won't 'smush' each other. This method should also be used with delicate types of berries (raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, etc.)

Blueberries are very easy to freeze -- just put them in a freezer bag when they are fresh stick them in the freezer.

The trick to freezing fruit is making sure that you keep all the pieces that you are freezing separate until they are actually frozen. So for whatever it is, we'll use your example of peaches. Wash them as though you would be eating it right then and there and then slice it up (keeping the skin on is a personal choice) and then take a baking tray or something large and flat and lay out a piece of wax paper. Take away as much excess fluid from the fruit by using either a clean dish towel or paper towel and then place them on the tray with as much as the fruit NOT making contact with the wax paper as possible and so that none of the pieces of fruit are touching each other. Once they are all frozen transfer them to a freezer bag as quickly as possible so that you dont cause any unnessecary thawing and moisture
Good Luck

I just read a "freezing recipe" on one of the farms' websites that has berry picking. It stated to clean the fruit, lay the pieces of fruit on a cookie sheet and freeze, and then once frozen place in a freezer storage container. Makes sense to me - since previously when I froze stuff they seemed mushy because of everything all "mushed" together pre-freeze.

Any fruit that doesn't have a skin (like bananas, apples, peaches), just wash first. For berries and bananas, we put a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet or stiff cutting board and lay the fruit out on it (bananas we cut up in 1 inch circles). Freeze till firm, remove from wax paper (I use the wax paper because it normally allows a easier release than if you just put it straight on the board or cookie sheet). Then place in a freezer bag with as much air removed as possible. Put in the back of the freezer until ready to use.

Some fruits (peaches & nectarines come to mind) need to be blanched and peeled (you don't want the skin anyway, since unless you're getting organic, it's probably got a lot of pesticides on it-bleh).

Cherries, you can wash, pit with a small knife and freeze on wax paper.

This isn't really what you are asking about, but thought I would shre if you haven't heard this before. We freeze purple (red) grapes in the summer and eat them as a frozen treat. We go through aboubt 4-5 bags a week they are sooo good. I wash them, pick them off the vines, place into a bowl and set them in the freeze. So, so good!!