[Sca-cooks] OOP: Spiced Fruits

[Holly Stockley]

>Is this just a regional thing, or a marketing thing, or a change in
>US culture, or something else?

They're not available in Mich AFAIK anymore, either.  Unless you hit a local 
church or Menonite harvest-time bakesale and get lucky.
>
>I'm asking well ahead of time, because it's almost peach season
>(yeah, they're in the stores, but they're a bit "early"), and my
>daughter and i are going to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the extended
>family this year. So i want to know if i need to can some myself -
>i'm an inexperienced canner, so it may be something of an ordeal. Or
>if i can find them somewhere and save the trouble...
>
Oh, not so much of an ordeal.  Consider it an adventure!  I'd suggest 
investing in the "Ball Blue Book of Preserving" (which really isn't blue 
anymore, but tradition and all that....).  There are a couple recipes for 
apples, including one that uses cinnamon red hots.  Never tried that one.  
And one for Peaches in spices and honey that IS faboo.   Canning isn't that 
difficult.  Just have the right equipment.  One of the best tidbits is the 
little set Ball sells with a set of can tongs, a plastic slide for getting 
out air bubbles, a funnel, and a magnetic want for fishing the hot lids out 
of the water.

You might also check bargain book stores for a book called "Perfect 
Preserves" by Norah Carey.  It's got a very British bent, but has a recipe 
for rowanberry and crabapple jelly as well as other things that are more 
than a little esoteric by US standards.  I really like her method of making 
and storing pectin stock for use in jams and jellies - in lieu of sure-jell 
which is getting exorbitantly expensive.

Femke - who is off to shake down the local berry grower for her entire crop 
of gooseberries yet again this year.  *g*