Breads and Breakfast

2-3 pounds of large peaches or 8 pounds of small peaches

3 1/4 cups sugar

5 cups water

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp vanilla extract

Wash the peaches. Peel by dipping them in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds, then plunging them into ice water to cool quickly. Slip off the peel, halve the fruit, or slices, then pit and scrape the cavity to remove the red fibers, if desired (these fibers tend to turn brown during storage).

As the peaches are halved, prevent darkening by placing the fruit directly into an anti-darkening solution

1. Clean your jars, rings and lids. A dishwasher works great for this. I usually put them in a pot of boiling water and then place them in the oven on the lowest temperature while I prepare my fruit.
2. Peel your mandarins. Remove as much of the white pith as possible. These little Kishu Mandarins took no work at all to remove the pith, but their smaller than golf ball size did involve a lot of peeling.

To prepare for canning, I heat 5 pint/500 ml mason jars in boiling water and left them in the hot water until ready to be filled. The sealing discs and ring bands were also warmed in a small pot of boiling water and left in the hot water until ready to use.

Blackberries I prefer to raw pack. Take whole,stemmed,cleaned blackberries and fill into hot mason jars. Ladle a light sugar syrup (3 cups of water to every cup of sugar) into each jar, leaving a ½-inch headspace. Wipe off the top of each jar, and seal with a lid and ring. Place jars into a boiling water bathcanner and process pints and quarts for 15 min. When processing is over, remove hot jars, place on a padded surface, and wait for them to seal overnight. Clean and store in cool dark place.