Canning

Well, it's that time of year.  I suppose it always could be that time of year actually though.  Anyway, I did some canning today.  I made one batch of peach jam, one batch of organic peach jam and a test batch of apple butter.  So, I should be stocked up on homemade jam for a while!  (Which is always fantastic!!)  :)

I was so into my groove in the kitchen that I hardly took any pics.  Literally....I took 8, and most of them are from the apple butter test.  So...that's a sad day.  But, truth be told I didn't do anything too special with the peach jam anyway...just went with the traditional recipe in the box of Sure-jell.  (You know, the one that says 4 c. peeled, pitted, chopped peaches, 5.5 c. sugar and 1 pkg. Sure-jell.)

So for my first batch I used regular peaches I had gotten at wal-mart.  They were ripe, but still firm.  That batch went well and gave me 2 pints, and 7 little 4 oz. jam jars worth!

My second batch was made from Organic peaches that I got at King Soopers.  They were also ripe but firm.  This batch went well too and yielded 2 pints, one 1/2 pint and 3 or 4 little 4 oz. jam jars.

Of course after I had gotten each batch in their jars (respectively) I water processed them for 10 minutes.  It seemed weird to only have to process them that short...since back in CO it was SO longer because of the elevation!

So after I did the jam, I wanted to try some apple butter.  I looked for recipes but they all added so much sugar and used tart apples.  So, I bet you know what's coming, I made my own recipe.  :)