Here's the end of the peaches in ginger syrup story. Let me just say one thing, and I suppose all you experienced canners will have a chuckle. FREESTONE. I had seen that sign near peaches at the farm stand, and never thought about it before... This time, there was no sign about free stones or not, but the peaches were soooo pretty, I could just imagine them all perfect and beautiful halves in the shiny quart jars. I ripened the peaches on the counter for two days, then set up all the big pots of water to peel, big bowl of ice water to chill, big bowl of Fruit Fresh & water (I happened to have the Fruit Fresh, but will next buy ascorbic acid or vitamin c or something cheaper.) The kitchen was a steamy mess, I peeled the peaches, cut them in half, and the pit split in half and got stuck in the center of each half and I nearly murdered the peaches trying to get the danged pit out. So instead of halves, I have slices, and I have the lovely ginger syrup (steeped for one hour, then pulled out the ginger and brought it back up to a boil). The peaches looked mangled. I packed the quarts, poured the hot syrup in, and BWB for 25 min. (according to Ball.) When they came out of the canner, the slices were floating and had blurry edges, if that makes sense, not all pretty and firm! And there's about 1/4 of the jar that's just syrup. Should I worry? What the heck did I do wrong, other than that FREESTONE thing? There was 1/2 a jar of peaches leftover and they are absolutely delicious over pound cake. I also imagine I could blend it with ice and a little rum and call it a frozen ginger peach daquiri. :) Thanks for all your help, Cathy, still cleaning up a very sticky kitchen, in DC

Before anyone fusses at me, yes I know you are only supposed to use approved recipes. However in this case I'll compare the recipe to know quantities and use my judgment. I think there is enough vinegar for the amount of low acid ingredients esp since peaches are acidic. You have about 1 1/4 cups low acid ingredients and 1/2 cup vinegar (2.5 to 1). Compare that to the surejell hot pepper jelly recipe that has 4 cups low acid ingredients and 1 cup vinegar (4 to 1). http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/surejell-hot-pepper-jelly-51962.aspx These are the proportions from Caribbean Peach Chutney in the Ball Complete Book. For our purposes I will estimate low based on their guide and say 3/4 cup per onion and bell pepper. So the ginger, onion and bell pepper together would be 4 cups plus the banana pepper to 1 cup vinegar (also 4 to 1). Of course you have the addition of the candied citrus peel which is also a low acid ingredient. 1 cup peeled, chopped gingerroot 1 cup malt vinegar 10 cups chopped, pitted, peeled peaches (Their guide says 1 lb peaches should yield about 2 1/4 cups sliced peaches or 1 3/4 cups crushed) 2 cup lightly packed brown sugar 2 onions, finely chopped 2 green bell peppers, seeded and finely chopped 1 hot banana peppers, seeded and finely chopped 1 cup dark raisins 1 cup golden raisins 1 cup mixed candied peel* (of your choice) 1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon cloves Here is an approved recipe with mangoes which are less acidic than peaches (although maybe similar if underripe?) The proportions are very similar. Personally, I would leave it alone. But if you have anyone in your family with a compromised immune system or you have a low comfort level with these things, by all means, freeze it. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_06/mango_chutney.html

A Ball recipe or Annie's salsa will work just fine with any tomato variety. They're designed with sufficient acidity to cover lower-acid varieties or just natural variations in acidity due to ripeness/growing conditions. (I am assuming healthy tomatoes from healthy plants.) There are some few tomato varieties that are lower-acid. Jetstar comes to mind. But it has nothing to do with color or whether they're heirlooms or not. Most of the tomatoes people THINK are low-acid just have more sugar so they're sweeter. A yellow tomato is no more likely to be low-acid than a red one. Carol

hello, It is funny that u mentioned the spices because last month i canned sliced peaches and i added a few allspice balls, cinnamin sticks (half)a clove in each of my quart jar of peaches and they looked amazing. When i opened a jar for my uncle he said " gee yosh the cinnamin is strong so yes i do agree the spices over time can get strong. So the next batch i made for my best friends son i just added a apice bag with nutmeg,cinn, and allspice, and 1 clove and took it out of the syrup just before i canned them and my goodness my girlfriend told me that her son 11Yrs old took the jars out of the cabinet and tries to keep them in his room away from his sister they say it tast like peach cobbler. I sent her 4 quart jars and at home i have 4 quart of the "spiced" jars so i think i will use them for peach cobbler and add some unspiced peaches to it. Maybe i just added too much seeing as how it looked so nice in the jars lol but from now on i season the syrup and take out the spice bag (thanks to Uncle Nat). On the cover of one of the Ball Canning books the jar of fruit has I think mint in it, it looks so nice. Dave did mention to me that the spices over time will get stronger but i guess i thought that was for the crushed tomatoes I didnt think about the clove and the cinnamin stick lol. Yoshi4696