You can cut away the bad part and save the rest, but you'll have to use it pretty quickly once you cut into it.

I usually peel and slice some fresh peaches and mix them with a little sugar and Fruit Fresh (it prevents browning) and freeze them in freezer boxes or freezer zip-lock bags. If you don't have Fruit Fresh at home, you can get it on the canning aisle or sometimes it is on the baking aisle near the pectin or spices. I freeze them in amounts we'd use for baking cobblers or for making homemade peach ice cream. I generally also make peach jelly, spiced peach butter, etc. when we have a good peach year.

Of course, we eat all of them fresh that we can because home-grown peaches are a gourmet treat when eaten fresh still warm from the sun while you stand there in the yard when juice dripping down your chin. That's my favorite way to eat a fresh peach....standing beside the tree in the hot sun.

It is preferable to pick them ripe on the tree, when they are just a little tiny bit soft to the touch, and are their mature ripe color and smell like a fresh peach. If you pick them green, they'll soften up inside the house but they won't really get any riper and their texture will get mealy.

You may be able to deter the birds by putting bird netting over the tree, or by slipping paper bags, tie shut with twine or twist ties from bread bags, over the fruit before it begins to ripen. This can be a PITA because you have to open the bags to check for ripeness). Some people put cloth bags or nylon stocking type knee-highs over each peach to protect them from the birds.

When I am picking peaches, I pick a mix of perfectly ripe, plus any I might have missed at the last picking that now are a tiny bit overripe, and a few that are underripe for canning and mix all three kinds together when making jelly.

Here's the peach page from pickyourown.com. It has all kinds of useful tips from when to pick to how to preserve.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Pick Your Own Peaches

I live in E. Oregon and my peach trees this year also grew some baseball size peaches and lots of them. So yummy and juicy. I've canned some and froze some. I am about to freeze some more.

I do have a question - I have several pounds of peaches that aren't completely ripe yet. I'm going away for the weekend and I can't leave them out because the other day when I did that, I woke up to a bunch of black ants everywhere. So, I'm wondering - if I put them in the frig for a few days (3), will they finish ripening when I take them back out? They're really close to being fully ripe.

I hope this answer isn't too late to help.

Peaches do not ripen after removed from the tree. They do continue to soften and you'll see changes in texture/hardness of the peach, but it isn't ripening more.

Yes, I'd store them in the fridge to preserve and protect them from the ants them while you're away but it won't make them any riper. The ripening ceases when they come off the tree.

Nice to hear you are having luck. I was at the farmer's market on Saturday and the only peaches they had was way tiny. Not even golf ball sized.

I love peaches. I remember when I lived in Seattle we could get them baseball sized and super sweet. I envy you...