(thanks for fixin everything btw Mark!) One of those middle of the night things last night, but the modem inside the house being fried, and it being below freezing and me being in my underwear, decided to wait until tonight to post. Not really a craving either. I was hungry, it was there. I love those tender little sweet juicy crisp carrots - but wanted something more. And the peach preserves were a trial and error thing. How I ended up with them is interesting. Went to fix some old farts pickup truck, and upon completion of the repairs (wasn't much wrong) he discovered he had no cash, but offered 3 jars of peach preserves as payment. What the hell. Ok old dude, got a deal. When I got home, I noticed the date scribbled on the top, 7/89. EEK! friggin TEN year old peach preserves??? well, they *are* supposed to be 'preserved' right? Open the top, was still stuck down and sealed with vacuum. No mold, not even discolored. Smelled ok. Put some on a carrot, offered it to my dog that doesn't eat sweets but will eat foul things, and since she DIDN'T eat it - I figgered it must be ok, so took the plunge. I slept pretty much all night. Didn't have any problems at all. Whoever did em must have known what they were doing. and btw - they are DELICIOUS! thats the crazy part. Baby carrots n peach preserves!

sweet potatoes and ginger marmalade those fetus carrots julienned with a pinch of freshly chopped mint acorn squash with real maple syrup thinly sliced leeks with mandarin oranges and amaretto i swear i posted this earlier. i bet Martha saw it and deposted it just for spite.

Ummmmm... ginger mamalade. Can I have some? And Whet -- if you work on cars for preserves/ mine is due for an oil change. I've got apple butter in the fridge/homemade pesto in the freezer/& half a blender of Margaritas left.

sounds purdy damn good! I like candied ginger at times, keep a little out in the shop freezer for shits n grins, relatively speaking. Sure R.C. Speaking of apple butter, have you tried making it in the OVEN rather than stove top? Works like a CHARM< and it doesn't stick, and don't have to stir constantly, just do as normal then spread out in a flat pan, put the oven on around 250 or so, and check on it about every hour, turn n stir. Do this 2 days in a row for a few hours, and you'll have the smoothest richest thickest butter ya've ever tasted, and hardly any work involved. I use one of those stick it crank the handle / spin apple peelers to boot. Makes sauce time go a hella faster. Looking out the front of the shop now, at the back of my dump truck FULL of fruit tree limbs where we just pruned a neighbor's little orchard. Can't wait fer apple season again, and here in GA its hit and miss, NOTHING like out in washington. I just couldn't believe driving by seeing an old farms, grown up, house falling down, and HUGE apple trees bending the branches with *perfect* apples. With the bugs here you gotta work yer ass off to get much anything out of the garden/orchard/honeybeeyard, then its a tossup with the weather. If this hot weather keeps up, and the trees completely bud out - its gonna be a bust anyhoo. Keep your fingers crossed!