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Fruit Preserves

I have finished my fruit preserves. I have 30 pints of peach preserves at a cost of about $1.50 per pint; I also saved peaches for four pies. I also have 27 pints of strawberry preserves at a cost of about $1.25 per pint. These are all low-sugar preserves. All this took me over two weeks of steady work, first prepping the fruit and storing it in the freezer, then steadily canning it batch by batch. Some of this will be given away as gifts, the rest will keep me going until next spring. I use preserves almost every day. I may have overdone it a little bit this year but I do make good use of them. When I give them away, I counsel my friends to not open the jar right away but to wait for a cold winter's day to brighten things up.

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