I went a little nuts at the farmers market this morning (it all smelled so good...) and ended up with about 40 nectarines. They are still a little hard (good flavor but have the texture of an apple). I thought I would let them sit for a couple of days, peel and slice them, and freeze them for smoothies. Any hints about helping them ripen? how about peeling that many? My dad would throw tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute to make them easy to peel without cooking them - would that work for nectarines? Is a minute too long?

Did I mention that the farmers market smelled REALLY good?

JM...you are going to use perfectly good nectarines for SMOOTHIES?!!

No nectarine tarts with pastry cream? No fruit salad with nectarines, blueberries and toasted almonds? No nectarine sorbet?

tsk, tsk.

Well, if you insist, I think putting them in a paper bag on the counter is supposed to help them ripen. I don't know about the blanching part...if you blanch, make sure to have an ice bath ready. Nectarines strike me as being a quick cooking fruit, so I'd try to stop the cooking process as fast as possible. Also, the ice bath will make the fruit contract a little bit, so the peel *should* be looser. I think. I've never blanched a nectarine before.

AJoeMama, as soon as I read your post (and really, as soon as I read your title), I thought, "This looks like a job for MightyNinjaMom!"

I second the paper bag thing to help them ripen. Some folks also advise throwing an apple in the bag with them. I guess the apple releases some sort of gas (tee-hee) that helps the process along.

I, personally, will eat a very ripe peach or nectarine peel/skin and all. But then again, I seek out a lot of sensory input from my food.

Usually I will gorge on nectarines until I can't hold anymore and never fuss with peeling them, but 40 is a bit much even for me. We drink a lot of smoothies in the Familias household because it is the only way I can get STB#2 to "eat" fruit. I'll throw them in a full size grocery bag with an apple and give them a couple days. I'll let you know how the blanching goes!

MNM - if you ever want to go into the personal chef business let me know!

(I am stewing "second" tomatoes (ugly but yummy) with fresh basil and balsamic vinegar - $2 for 10 lbs of tomatoes...I love this time of year!)

Frenchy - It's ethylene, I think.

JM - I'm sure I would get more satisfaction feeding adults than kids.

put them in a fruit bowl with some ripe bananas. Bananas ripen up everything around them.

and i adore nectarines. It's a travesty putting them in smoothies, although i can see your point. they make great chutney, and they do awesome as the top on a teacake. or in pancakes. they go brilliantly with pear in a crumble too.

I just wish I had access to someone who would sell me 40 at once.

For peeling them, yeah, boil water, give them a minute, pull them out. It's slightly faster if you cut an X on the bottom of each one first, but it is going to be a slippery mucky job anyway. Fill a sink or basin with a couple inches cold water first, to continually rinse your hands as you go, otherwise you'll get too slippery to be able to peel them.

mmm I love a crunchy nectarine. Hope you did something marvelous with them

Boil them then give them a dunk in ice water. It stops the cooking process and the fruit shrinks and the skin practically peels itself.

I love peaches, hate nectarines. A yummy crumb is easy to make. The crumbs is just pie crust mix with added sugar.

Yum! No advice, just sounds good. Nectarines!

Crumble/crisp (like apple crisp but with a nectarine base). Jam (that's a lot of work though).

if you do go the nectarine crumble, i recommend putting pear in (as i said), but also putting hazelnut halves in the crumble part. Or just sprinkle them on top before baking. Trust me. :)