okay, so we have a neighbor who doesn't live in his house and he has three beautiful peach trees which are bursting with peaches. so j has been bugging me about doing something with the peaches before they fall off or the birds get them. there are only so many you can eat.i decided to make some homemade peach chutney and try my hand a my first "canning." i haven't ever canned anything before and can only slightly remember watching my grandmother and my mother do it. i remember lots of boiling water and the fun little sound that the tops made when they sealed, but that is about all i remembered. fast forward twenty years and i'm attempting it for myself. i read up a bit online and went looking for what i needed. i'm guessing australians don't can much because i had a hell of a time finding what i needed and even then i don't think i got it right - only 2 out of 8 jars sealed properly. the jars here are not the two piece lids that you get in the states and they hardly look like they have a big enough rubber seal to get a tight fit. i went to every grocery store, dollar store, kitchen store and finally found some jars at the craft store!
the venture wasn't a total loss. it took me ALL day but i did get two jars which i can "put up". i managed to get a pretty severe burn on my hand from the chutney (blisters in one place). that shit is like molten lava! the chutney is delicious and i will be giving most of it away seeing as how we cannot possibly eat 8 jars in a matter of weeks. here are a couple pics of my product!
success? not totally
failure? not totally
lessons learned:1) get a proper canning kit
2) find the proper canning jars
3) make sure a friend is around to help
the envelopes are diy too. i found a cool side opening envelope and used it as a pattern. 
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