I am now halfway through processing my eighty (80) pounds of peaches. I will link recipes in comments. I have *thoughts* about peaches.
I spent yesterday evening brooding about this recipe after making it from Ball All-New.
It specifies pints. The general rule is that you can scale jar size down, but not up, but my tentative conclusion, which I wish to test against the collective wisdom of the community, is that this recipe could actually be scaled up.
Reddit won't let me put both photos and links in the same post, so I'll include links to support all my assertions in a comment below but include all my discussion here.
This recipe is essentially peach halves or quarters in a syrup that is flavored with tea and lemon.
Tea in general is not considered safe to use in canning liquids because different teas can have different pHs. Source: extension discussion. Note that this is a Ball tested recipe that specifically says that you can use any type of tea. I believe that Ball has controlled for pH variations by the amount of lemon juice added, which I believe is for safety (peaches, except for the white flesh ones, are consistently high-acid and NCHFP instructions do not require the addition of lemon juice for straight-up canned peaches). I therefore conclude (tentatively) that *as long as I keep the proportions of tea leaves to water to lemon juice the same* (for example by doubling all three to make more liquid) the recipe would remain safe if I make more liquid to account for bigger jars.
Next, the honey and sugar. Ball says you can use an all-honey syrup here, though the NCHFP's general advice is to substitute no more than 50% of the sugar for honey or other liquid sweeteners. The Ball recipe uses a ratio of 3.5 C. water to 2 cups combined honey/sugar. I didn't do the exact calculation but that appears to be heavy syrup. It would be poisonously sweet. Because sugar here is for flavor not safety, I believe the amount of sugar/honey can be safely reduced to taste.
In other words, I believe that Ball has used the raw pack peaches NCHFP instructions as a starting point and confirmed the safety of the addition of tea in a specified concentration with lemon juice and THEREFORE if I wanted to make this in quarts I should use the processing time for raw pack quarts from NCHFP.
What do we think about this? I welcome the identification of any flaws in my analysis.
This was a weird year because I dropped my entries off and immediately left the country (got back home yesterday afternoon), so I had no idea how I did until I picked up my entries today after the fair ended.
From left to right my ribbons are as follows: apple pie, second place but also a "Heritage Award" (I assume because of the fancy design); cherry jam, first place; chokecherry jelly, first place and best in class; carrots, first place, best in class AND Heritage Award; elderflower pears, third place (white ribbon, dinged me on headspace and uniformity of pieces), cherries, second place (red ribbon, they dinged me on headspace); and honorable mention for spice cookies and pecan pie (no indication why these placed so low).
The participant award in the back is embarrassing but included for completeness. They said there was an earwig in one jar (I don't think so but ewwwww) and also that they thought it wasn't technically a barbecue sauce but more of a chutney. But the recipe is a barbecue sauce recipe (zesty peach barbecue sauce). I wouldn't have given me a ribbon at all for an earwig).
This is the first year I received any judging comments at all. I remain baffled by the great enthusiasm, for the second year in a row, for my canned carrots, which although delicious seem pretty...mundane?
I picked up my eighty pounds of peaches yesterday. Here is the first order of business. Tomatoes are from my garden. NCHFP recipe, link in comments
I've included my three baked good entries as well as my canning. Contents listed in response to auto-bot. I've included a glamour shot of the pie because people always want to see my pies.
I'll drop recipe references in the comments. I'm about halfway through the 80 pounds of Flathead cherries I picked up on Wednesday.
From left to right: in the yellow bowl, cherry pit syrup in process (not shelf-stable); in front, cherry pie filling.
Jar with fermenting cap: brined cherries (a fermenting recipe, for fridge when done). In the red bowl, Ukrainian pickled cherries in process.
Small jars in front of bowl: chocolate cherry jam with added almond extract
Next row of jars: cherry relish
To right of that row: cherry jam with kirsch and rosewater
Finally, more pie filling.
Not shown: cherry chutney in fridge; batch of cherries currently in dehydrator; about 6 pounds stemmed, pitted, and frozen.
I had to add temporary labels on the counter in front of the various jams/relish to keep them all straight. I did a bunch of variations today.
I use the old reliable cherry pie filling recipe. I like to use pie cherries.
This year I could not get pie cherries. I have 80 pounds of Flathead cherries, which are sweeter.
Can I reduce the amount of sugar called for to compensate for the sweeter cherries?
Okay, so I don’t really know if this is the right sub…
I’ve been married to my husband for almost 11 years. When I’m in a serious relationship, I don’t like being called my first name. I don’t like my first name in general, and even go by a nickname with my friends. For example (not real name) if my name was Jaqueline and I went by Jack. My husband usually calls me babe or sweetie or something but has recently started calling me my first name sometimes. He KNOWS I don’t like it and he says then change my name because he shouldn’t have to feel like he can’t call me my own name. “Everyone else” calls each other by their names in relationships except us apparently, and it’s “not healthy”. He won’t call me the “Jack” nickname, because it’s a guy’s name. So here we are. It just feels so informal and dismissive, people I don’t know well call me by my first name, or in a professional work setting. Idk.
*He is slightly on the spectrum, not sure if this relates.
*He’s not cheating, and we don’t have a bad relationship by any means.
*This is a conversation that has come up a few times over the past couple years.
Not really sure what I’m looking for here, but figured it’s bothering me enough to throw it out there.
I’m window she’s aisle in first class. I boarded before her, and I’m 6.5ft, long legs. she asks me to move my legs so she can put her mini roller bag on my side, hers is blocked by the leg holding up the row in front of us.
me: “you want me to give up my space for your bag? sorry, you’re not taking up the space I paid for.
boomer lady to FA “hE sAiD I’m not allowed to put this down there”
me to both“ hi, what I actually said is that Im not ok with giving up my area for her bag, I’m tall and I need the space“
FA “ ma’am, if it doesn’t fit under the seat in front of you, I’ll put it in the closet”
she is old and has text font like size 40pt. on her phone and starts typing she’s “seated next to an “a$$hole” to whoever.
i lean over…” am i really an asshole for not letting you take my foot space? would you give it up?”
She thinks for like 5 seconds, “yes I would”
me: ”sure, whatever you say lady”
standing up for oneself isn’t being an asshole.
My wife and I have been married for about 10 months. We’re both young and recently graduated from college.
I work as an analyst for a defense company and make about $65k a year, plus a little extra from side work. I still have about $7k in student loans left, and I’m about to start an online master’s program that my employer will pay for.
My wife left her job because she didn’t like the work environment. It was mostly male coworkers, and one in particular was inappropriate and flirted with her despite knowing she was married. I wasn’t happy about that situation either, but I trusted my wife and never told her she needed to quit. Leaving was her decision.
The problem is that she has a 2025 BMW that costs around $1,100 per month between the loan and insurance, and without an income, it’s quickly eating through her savings.
We agreed that I would cover our household expenses while she worked to pay for her car and focus on paying off her premarital debt, while I paid off mine. Once we got through the debt we brought into the marriage, we planned to combine finances and make financial decisions together moving forward.
From my perspective, I don’t think it’s fair or realistic for me to suddenly take on an $1,100 monthly car payment that was already hers before we got married, especially on my current income. If we had bought the car together during the marriage, I’d feel differently because that would have been a joint decision.
We’ve argued about this because she sometimes says that if I want finances to be “50/50” then I’m not acting like a man. That’s not what I’m asking for at all. I’m not trying to split every bill down the middle. I’m saying that we need to live within our means and deal with the debt we already have before taking on additional financial burdens.
She talks about wanting to eventually be a stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home wife, and I’m not against that in the future if our finances support it. But right now I’m early in my career, fresh out of college, and still building my income and financial stability. I served in the military before college, so I got a later start than some people my age and I’m still trying to establish myself professionally.
To her credit, she has been actively looking for work. She’s applying every day and has had several interviews already, and I respect that effort.
If she can’t find a job soon, I think the responsible choice may be to sell the BMW, accept the financial hit, and buy something more affordable so we can focus on building our future together instead of being weighed down by one expensive car payment.
I know I haven’t always handled these conversations well. When she says it’s my responsibility as the man to provide everything, I get frustrated and defensive, and I’ve raised my voice and said things I regret.
None of this is fair but honestly, I don't even know wtf my actual honest-to-god role is in today's economy. It's hard to have that kind of purchasing power to take care of another human being while growing wealth at this age.
What's financially the most responsible solution?
The Dead South concert tomorrow night got moved to the skate park. I've never been to a concert there.
Double checking to make sure we can bring lawn chairs to sit in (I've been to some venues with weird rules in my day)
There is life on the other side. I've been through the long-distance relationships, the age gap relationships, and so on. I mean, I've *seen* some shit. Also, I was a family law attorney for many years, so I have SEEN some shit.
Married 35 years now. We ran errands in town, stopped off at a favorite restaurant at the way home. Blue rare NY strip.