Yes, I did Melly - half light brown sugar added to the peaches, the other half of the sugar is cane sugar added to the pan. Used the last of the bottle of Frangelico, just barely 6 oz, in place of the rum. Like you said about the peaches, the nectarines were sorry but the jam is fantastic. I figured the Frangelico being hazelnut would do the same thing for nectarines that almond does for peaches. I made your Peach Vanilla Almond (no beans) Jam today, with clear vanilla extract (1 tsp) and almond extract (1/2 tsp) added at the end. I got 6 8-oz jars, plus a half dozen chunks and some syrup left in the pan. I had boiled the pits (some not quite ripe so chunks left on the pits) and peels, planning to make the Peach Honey or syrup, but had 4C of juice so decided to put that in the pan with a small slice of ginger and a quart of frozen (thawed) blackberries from last year, pulled some berries out after heating to dissolve the sugar, used the same "French plunge" method adding the reserved berries after the syrup was almost gelled. I'm not sure I have a good set, and most of the fruit ended up in the first 4 jars (I got 5), and it's floating, but I'm calling it "Preserves" if it doesn't set hard. I got another 2 jars of "jelly" (or syrup?) I processed and then another almost 12 oz (10 oz?) I put in the fridge and boy it tastes yummy. Not bad for 4 lbs of peaches and a quart of berries (and 10C of sugar, and all day)! The jelly is such a beautiful color (except for a stray seed here and there) that I think next time I'm just going to add blackberry juice instead of whole berries and see whether that has enough pectin to make the peach juice set. I really prefer the taste of no-pectin preserves. Next time I have peaches, I'm thinking of trying the Helen Witty Peach-Rum Jam. Just had to have something the kids could eat this time since DD was the one who insisted I buy 6 lbs of peaches at the orchard this week ;-) Thanks for the recipe!

I've got rosemary, oregano, thyme, and mints in pots too. All of mine do fine through the winter (I'm in s.e. Wake Co). I can harvest from rosemary and thyme throughout the winter and a sometimes a little oregano (but I usually just use it dried because it's easier). My mints are in pots sunk in the ground to attempt to contain them and they die back during the winter. I usually keep my pots in a somewhat sheltered spot up against the house to keep them a little warmer. If it gets really cold (teens - low 20's) I throw a floating row cover over them. I'd just dry the sage. It takes up less space that way. And sage holds it's flavor well dried. I save freezer space for basil, cilantro, parsley, and chives.

I've been freezing my ripe peppers for a couple of months now, and I must say I am pleasantly surprised and ecstatically happy how much they retain their color and texture. I used some in a stir fry the other night and really couldn't tell the difference between fresh ones and frozen ones. I didn't do anything other than cut them up, rinse and freeze. If it would help, I did post how I froze them on my blog. This is one case where I wish somebody would do some genetic engineering to take the gene in peppers that makes them freeze so well and transfer it to...say lettuce :-) Here is a link that might be useful: Freezing Peppers

Pinkmountain, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't due to the lack of pectin. I made apricot jam and Christine Ferbers' mint pepper strawberry preserves both without pectin and they still have a jam feel. The strawberry recipe had 4 parts sugar to 5 parts fruit by weight and I used a bit less sugar to fruit in the apricot jam. Both had a kind of soft set, but they had a set. The jam for cold mornings and the brown sugar rum are also around that ratio - somewhere between 5 and 6 parts fruit to 4 parts sugars. The maple peach that I made isn't runny and it will stay on the bread but the texture is in a different class. It is solid enough to stay where I put it but it doesn't have any "set". My husband tried it without being told what it was and referred to it as peach butter. It has one part sugar in the form of maple syrup to about 10 cups peaches. It is good and I'm not sorry that I made it but I would tend to call it something other than peach jam. I'd call it peach sauce like apple sauce except that people might think that meant it was a syrup. Maybe peach butter - I'm not sure what makes a fruit butter.