PEACHES BABY!!!!

Last week was peach week for me. I had mentioned to Mark's mom that I would like to learn how to bottle peaches and she said that she would teach me. We got peaches from Allred's in Provo and had a marathon bottling day on Monday. When I say marathon I mean marathon...90 jars of Peaches that day!! I have never eaten so many peaches in my life, they were soooo good and juicy! At 6pm when we finally called it quits, 8 hours after starting, we still had one box of peaches that weren't quite ripe. I decided that I would take them and try to make Jam. Now I will have you know I had never made jam before and I wasn't sure at all what I was doing, (for some reason I didn't take to opportunity to learn from my mom when I had the chance. Sure I had to help mom do apricot jam, current jam, tomatoes, green chili's, corn, pickles, etc...every year of my at home life, but I didn't have the desire then to really learn how.) I went to the store, bought the Sure gel, and got started on the Jam at 9pm on Thursday night! Mark was nice enough to help me peel them, but then I was on my own. My kitchen was a disaster, I didn't have all the right tools like my MIL, it was taking a lot longer than I anticipated, my back was breaking, but right when I was ready to throw in the towel I heard it, you know that sound that says POP!!!! The sound of the jars sealing after taking them out of the steamer. The best sound in the world, aside from, well, lots of other sweet sounds, POP!!! It means that all your hard work paid off, that the jars sealed and they can now go on your food storage shelf. Woohoo!!!!!!!! I did it, I made jam all by myself and it worked, all 8 jars sealed. I even did some bags for the freezer, just cut up peaches with a little sugar to be used later as Ice cream topping or Peach Cobbler. If you can't tell, I am quite pleased with myself, the jam even tastes really good too! I sent my mom a picture text saying "Look what I did!" and she texted back and said "who is this?" Not really but I am sure she was pretty shocked!! Well, so anyone who wants some yummy Utah peaches next year come on up and get some and I might teach you how to make jam!!! Thanks Chari for teaching me how to do this, and sorry mom that I didn't learn way back when I had the chance.