I would like to use my atrocious dial-up (and it is atrocious) as my excuse for never getting around to answering comments, but if I am going to be honest with myself and you, gentle reader, then I am forced to admit that I’m Just Plain Slack. So sorry, and here’s a bit of catching up, starting with a recipe for:

Peach Bourbon Jam

6 cups peaches, washed, pitted and coarsely chopped (but not peeled)
1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
6 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup bourbon
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 package powdered pectin

-Combine prepared peaches with the brown sugar and lemon juice, and 1/4 cup of the bourbon, and let sit on the counter overnight, covered.
-Transfer peach mixture to a wide, nonreactive pan with a lid. Add remaining bourbon. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The peach chunks will be translucent. Remove lid, add granulated sugar, and cook rapidly, constantly stirring, until it reaches a temperature of 220°. Remove pan from heat, stir in pectin, and boil for 2 minutes more. Ladle into jars and process in a water bath. Makes five(-ish) 8-oz jars.

This is just one of the many wonderful recipes in The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook by Christopher Kimball.

Someone asked why we buy pullets instead of cockerels for our meat birds, and there are a few reasons, first being that pullets stay tender longer—lots longer, so there’s not quite so much pressure to get them into the freezer at just the right time—you get a little more leeway. Also the few you can’t catch at butchering time are still great for soup months later when you finally can catch them, unlike the cockerels, which get too tough for my taste. Another reason is that the pullets are the cheaper birds, in meat birds. They take a little longer to finish, but that’s fine with me, as I generally procrastinate butchering-type chores.

And a listing of the canned goods this year, though I must say that most of my friends and neighbors outdo me—I can’t ever seem to catch up with them! We canned 69 quarts and 1 pint of tomatoes. 4 pints, 6 half-pints, and 12 quarter-pints of peach bourbon jam. 13 pints of bread and butter pickles, 6 pints of mustard pickles, and 9 pints of okra pickles. I may still do more tomatoes, and I’ll definitely make some pickled hot peppers (jalapeno and fish peppers), and applesauce, and cider, and possibly ketchup. I must agree with tapsalteerie—it really is fun (though a lot of work, too). Right now I’m sort of between preserving projects, and I’m itching to make something!

I think that’s all the catching up I needed to do, though I have a nagging feeling that I’m forgetting something—if I remember it I’ll edit it in!