Makin' up them peach preserves

I've really been wanting to try my hand at bottling fruit, particularly as a school mom gave me a huge box of blackboy peaches. I've done the cooking and freezing thing, but bottling seems to be one of those farmhouse kitchen sorts of things that the very domesticated women do. I asked around for advice and some of it seemed extremely complicated (I had visions of glassware exploding inside the oven) so I went for the easiest method of cooking the peaches, spooning them into a jar, poking a knife about to release air bubbles, and then screwing the lid on. Seemed okay. I peeled and pipped and sliced and peeled and sliced and pipped and peeled...dark purple juice finding its way into every crack on my fingers and under my nails...cooked and wiped juice and tended the boiling pot...spooned it into the first of the four bottles I had purchased...and there was none left for the other three bottles! All that just for one bottle? As dear Mrs Kempf Snr said in response, you feel a bit cheated. She suggested I try scalding the peaches in boiling water first to help peel them easier, so when I did the second half of the box today I did just that, and it really made the messy job go faster. I know why they are called blackboy peaches now. It's not because of their colour, otherwise they would be called maroonboys...it's because you end up looking like a native African person when you're done with the preserving! When the boys came home today they asked if they could watch a DVD. It's been raining today and Nick had a fire going in the lounge from early afternoon. Tomorrow is their last day of school after an 11-week term, so I guess we're already partially in holiday mode :)