I just returned from a delightful road trip to visit family in Rupert, ID (a.k.a. farm town, USA). What a gorgeous place! Our vacation agenda was ideal - no planned (structured) activities but carefully timed for comfortable weather and ease. On one of the 'unplanned' days, I was schooled in the art of steam-juicing on the stove-top and canning jelly by Laurie's mom. Then, she gifted me the juicer (pictured on the far right of the stove). I couldn't wait to start using it. In anticipation, we purchased two boxes of giant O'Henry peaches in Yakima on the way home. Several hours later, I ended up with 8 quarts of aromatic and super sweet peach nectar which became 24 pints of old fashioned canned peach jelly. And there were 2 quarts of peach nectar left over for the deep freezer. As I write this, I can hear the canning lids popping as they seal. Canning peach jelly this way was very affordable and I am planning to use some of these for holiday gift giving. I always say that the best gifts are the ones you want to receive. In preparation, I was lucky enough to find 43 pint sized canning jars with lids for 20 cents each at a local Goodwill so all I had to buy for canning supplies were new seals, sugar and pectin. Tomorrow, I'm planning to make salsa out of the plethora of green tomatoes we harvested from the back yard in Idaho. It feels great to embrace early fall with the harvest!
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