Freezer Peaches, Whole ones

So my half bushel of peaches is gone! Well not gone, but the ones we haven't eaten yet are spoken for. Four are hiding in the back of my fridge waiting for Saturday morning peaches n' oatmeal (recipe coming soon, you don't want to miss this oatmeal favorite). And they are in hiding. Have been for 2 days. I haven't had a fresh peach in 2 days and I'm really fiending. If I could see the peaches in the fridge I might not be able to resist their fresh juicy peachiness and I might just gobble them right up in a parfait.

The bulk of the peaches are hiding out in the freezer (the TOMATOES label on the box is sneaky). I spent Monday night googling peach freezing options and finally decided on whole, pit in, peel on and sliced sugar pack in ziplock bags. The sweetened ones will be for holiday crisps. I can already see their bubbly peachy syrup sneaking up onto the spiced oatmeal crumb topping. The whole, pit in, peel on ones will be for smoothies and parfaits. I left them whole and unpeeled so I didn't have to deal with potential discoloration or adding sweeteners. I'm hoping their texture will hold up better to uncooked applications like smoothies and parfaits. Although I'm somewhat concerned about the PITA factor of getting the pit out of frozen fruit. I know the peel, should I need to remove it, will come off by running the frozen peach under hot water and wiping. I won't be removing it unless it becomes inedible due to the freeze. And if I were cooking the peaches it would be fine to let them defrost unpeeled before slicing, but that might affect texture?? I may be freezing them halved, pit out, face down on a cookie sheet, the moved to a ziplock next time.

I am giddy when I open the freezer door and I see my stash of peaches. In theory they are supposed to be for the dead of winter when I'm longing for a fresh peach. I suspect I know myself well enough that 95% of them will be gone by October (fine. i won't lie. september), then I'll save the last one FOREVER, delaying my grief over eating all the peaches and find it in the bottom of the freezer when big boo graduates from college.

So you'll have to stay tuned to find out whether or not it's hard to get the pit out of the frozen peach and whether or not their texture will be ok uncooked in a parfait.