"putting up"

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