Tooting my own horn

September 20, 2010
These may not win a blue ribbon at the state fair but I am oh so proud of myself! For the past who knows how many years, I've been telling Jeff I WILL learn how to bottle peaches. But I never did... until today. I bought myself a box of peaches that cost me a whooping $22 (please don't tell me I got ripped off!) on Saturday and set to work tonight bottling them. I figured how hard could this be? I mean, I've watched Jeff bottle tomatoes and make grape juice a million times before.m And I vaguely remember my mom and grandma steaming up our entire apartment one afternoon bottling peaches.

Little did I know.

By the time I decided whether to try the hot or cold method (note to self: DO NOT use cold method ever again), it took a good four hours (with a break to nurse Cole to sleep) to peel, slice, pit, bottle, and seal these beauties. Not to mention making several batches of syrup. And the clean up... we won't even go there. Twenty-six pints in all. Well, technically 22 because these four didn't seal. I spaced putting a lid on one of them, screwed the lid on crooked on the other, and the last two I forgot to let the air bubbles out before sealing them.

But no matter. Not only do I get to enjoy yummy peaches all winter long but I finally get to cross off one of my "bucket list" projects before I die!