So, How Many Peaches are in a Bushel?

You know you’re dealing with a lot of something when you’re talking about a bushel. You’ve got a bushel of problems, a bushel of money, a bushel of berries!

Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone actually explain just how much a bushel is. This summer, I saw bushels of peaches advertised and it never even crossed my mind that I didn’t know if it was a good deal or not. So, just how many peaches are in a bushel?

A bushel of peaches is 64 dry US pints, or 8 dry US gallons, worth of peaches. Depending on the size of the peaches and question, this will equal anywhere from 100 to 200 peaches.

Well, I’m glad I didn’t order one sight unseen because as much as I love peaches that would have been way more that I could eat before they spoiled.

But you should know that a bushel is actually a traditional measurement that still sees considerable use across much of America and even in Canada. If you want to learn more about the unit of measurement, and how many peaches you can expect from it, keep reading…

A Bushel is a Unit of Volume, and Sometimes a Unit of Weight

To clear this up, a bushel is properly a unit of volume, not a specific number of fruits, and not originally a unit of weight. As mentioned above, a bushel is the equivalent of 64 dry US pints or 8 dry US gallons.

However, it should also be mentioned that today bushel is most commonly used, colloquially, as a unit of weight. Unfortunately, that unit varies for every kind of produce or other material.

As an example, for peaches, it’s about 50 pounds. Barley, for instance, is 48 pounds to a bushel while a bushel of oats is 32 pounds.

Bushel Also Refers to a Standard Container

“Bushel” also refers to the actual container that holds a bushel’s worth. You know those large fruit baskets you see at farmers’ markets? Chances are they’re actually a bushel and hold as much! Now you know…

How Many Individual Peaches Are in a Bushel?

It depends on the size of the peach. Large peaches generally come 2 to a pound, medium peaches are typically 3 to a pound and smaller peaches will be 4 to a pound, with some variation of course.

A bushel will usually hold about 50 lb of peaches. Assuming that all of your peaches are more or less identical in size, that means we would get 100 large peaches, 150 medium peaches and 200 small peaches.

How Many Pounds is a Bushel of Peaches?

Informally, a bushel of peaches is about 50 pounds, typically, and this is also the metric that most people will use shorthand for figuring the weight of any number of bushes, at least when referring to peaches specifically.

Remember that you’ll always want to ascertain whether or not a seller of a bushel is referring to weight or volume lest you get ripped off!

How Much is a Half-Bushel of Peaches?

A half bushel of peaches is exactly what it sounds like: that would be 32 pints or 4 gallons. This will equate to between 50 and 100 peaches depending on the size of the fruits.

How Much Does a Half Bushel of Peaches Weigh?

A half bushel of peaches will weigh about 25 pounds, plus or minus a few pounds depending on the size of the peaches and the weight of the individual fruits. This is a far more reasonable amount for most of us that aren’t canning and preserving!

How Many Peaches are in a ¼ Bushel?

No surprises here, a quarter bushel will hold between 25 and 50 peaches. That is about 12 and 1/2 lb worth, 16 pints or 2 gallons of peaches.

Also, fun fact, a quarter of a bushel is referred to as a peck. That’s 2 pecks to a half bushel or 4 to the bushel. Remember the old rhyme about Peter Piper picking a peck of pickled peppers? Hopefully, it makes a little more sense now!

What Can You Get from a Bushel of Peaches?

A good rule of thumb is to expect about four cups worth of sliced peaches from every pound of whole fruit. Knowing that, we know we can get about 200 cups worth of sliced peaches from a whole bushel’s worth!

I hope you love peach preserves, peach pie, and peach ice cream because you’re about to be making a lot of each if you want to use up all of that!

Note that Bushels Vary by Country!

As if using a relatively archaic measurement like a bushel is not confusing enough, you should also know that they differ if you’re referring to US versions or imperial versions. For starters, in imperial measurements, a half bushel is referred to as a kenning.

Of course yet, the imperial metrics for bushel vary. For instance, whereas a US bushel is 8 US dry gallons, the imperial version is 8.25 US dry gallons, the equivalent to 9.6 US fluid gallons.

Naturally, this goes the other way also, with a US bushel being the equivalent of about 7 ¾ imperial gallons.

Bushels also vary even more than that in other European countries that still use them, and back in the day, merchants had to laboriously convert their native bushels to those of their purchasers. Made even worse by the fact that they would have to account for changes in dry weight! Whew!

I know this sort of minutiae and trivia is aggravating to infuriating for most of us, but it is important to consider if you are converting from different sellers or according to existing standards for whatever it is you’re doing.