In my perfect preserving world, everything I’d preserve would be organic, locally grown and cheap (or free). Living in the North makes it difficult to get certain fruit locally, never mind organic or even cheap for that matter. I was fortunate enough to can some locally (to my friend’s home) grown organic apricots a few weeks ago when we went a little ways South to visit our friends.

But when I go to the grocery store I gaze longingly at the cases of peaches waiting to be canned. Usually, I stop myself from buying them when I think of how pesticide laden they must be. Last weekend I could resist no longer. I bought just one case (for now) figuring that if there was any sort of disaster canned peaches would be a valuable asset to have on hand, pesticides and all. Canning the peaches was a labour of love. I got burnt a few times, no surprise there, and I created a sauna in my house, but those peaches look so darn good in their jars I’m happy that I decided to do it after all.