I attended a canning class yesterday presented by the Grayson County Extension Office and this is a recipe that was handed out for (uncooked) Orange Jelly: 1 box powdered pectin 2 cups lukewarm water 6-ounce can frozen orange juice concentrate 4 1/2 cups sugar 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice Mix the pectin slowly into the lukewarm water in a two-quart mixing bowl. Stir it constantly until the pectin is dissolved. Let it stand for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, but do not beat. Thaw the juice by placing the can in cold water. When the juice is thawed, pour it into a 1 quart bowl. Add the lemonjuice and 2 1/2 cups of the sugar. Mix thoroughly. All of the sugar will not dissolve. Add the rmaining 2 1/2 cups of sugar to the dissolved pectin. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Mix the juice mixture with the pectin mixture. Stir constantly until all sugar is dissolved. Pour the mixture into freezer containers or freezer jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Cover with appropriate lids. Let stand at room tempoerature until the mixture is set (up to 24 hours). Freeze or refrigerate.

Thanks everyone for your help.....And Carol that peach and pepper relish looks great and may be up next for some trial runs. Here is what I ended up with (my heavily amended hab gold recipe..;)) 4 cups peach nectar (45%fruit juice) 4 cups apricot nectar (45% fruit juice) 1 cup black cherry extract 1 cup each diced finely (used food processer for finer dice) of dried peaches, dried apricots, and dried tart cherries 2 cup finely chopped onion 1/2 cup finely chopped fatalli peppers 3 cups vinegar 7 cups sugar *still let sit overnight like original recipe* I let the fruit juices simmer while I did the chopping and that reduced their volumes a bit. I found that using the food processor on the dried fruit worked wonderfully. I eliminated the red bell pepper because with the addition of all that fruit the flavor was lost plus I wanted to make sure you got some onion flavor and this allowed me to increase my onion amount. I used fatalli pepper which is awesomely hot (one of the very hottest habaneros) but with all that sugar which counteracts the capsaicin, it is actually only reasonably hot. I left the pectin out because with all that sugar I was able to just cook to 225 degrees or so and it turned out just syrupy/glazy just like I wanted. Plus the extra fruit juices added some volume so this batch was not soooo chunky and full as the last batch. Tried some on some shrimp last night and it was wonderful. We just used it as a glaze in the last few minutes of cooking time. I was licking my fingers the whole time. Thanks everyone again for your help Kendra

These days we only juice citrus. We had a Jack Lalane juicer for apples and carrots, but we gave it away because we do not produce enough apples or carrots to juice. After tasting garden carrots we no longer want to buy commercial carrots. I found the Lalane really wasteful, lots of good roughage gone to the compost rather than our bodies. Also, a real pain in the $%^& to clean. It does make very good carrot, apple, carrot apple, melon, kale, celery juices. We switched to a vitamix, still experimenting with it, but we are interested in getting the whole food in a juice/smoothie, rather than just the juice and throw a lot away. I juice gallons and gallons of citrus. It was 10 gallons last year. That was the excess, not what we drank as we went along! We probably drank another 10 gallons. I have an citrus juicer attachment to our kitchenaid mixer. It is crap, don't buy it. The manual ones are OK, I have several different types. The Mexican clam-shell types that close on the halved citrus are not bad for small quantities. Since most of what we juice are minneolas, I now use a food mill. Same exact tool i use to mill my tomatoes. This is because minneolas have a very delicate, easy to remove peel when they are ripe, so it is best to peel first, then juice. In the rare occasion I juice grapefruit I'll use the crappy Kitchen aide attachment, or a regular manual juicer. In any case, the food mill is easier on the body than the electric Kitchen aide attachment, more comfortable to use and less effort, believe it or not. Also, the quality of the juice is exceptional, it does not separate when it sits, and it freezes nicely. I should also say I only juice quarts at a time, not gallons at a time. I get approximately 1-2 quarts per large basket of citrus, I only pick at most 3 baskets (so about 3-6 quarts at a time)

The cherries in the freezer are already pitted. I sat down in front of the tv last night and just pitted away. I think I am going to just pit the apricots and dip them in some vitamen C tablet disolved in water and then just freeze. I may take some and roast in the oven until tender and go ahead and puree and freeze in ice cube trays. Funny story, Rhiannon as I have mentioned will eat any and all veggies and fruits she started when she was less than a year old and she didn't even have teeth yet. She takes her little bucket out and picks spinach and green beans and eats them just like that. Also loves rhubarb and any and all fruits. Peyton who just turned 3 finally will eat carrots, celery and apples and that is about it, she has been exposed to the same things and just won't eat veggies and fruits. For breakfast, Hayden had a bowl of quarted fresh apricots. I was picking cherries from a smaller cherry tree and some branches where down to the ground, and all of a sudden I turned around and saw that Hayden was picking and eating cherries out of the tree. He also loves squash and beans, and all other fruits. It is funny that all 3 were exposed to the same things but Peyton is so picky and Hayden was eating fresh fruit at 9 months. I know that it helped that I make all my own baby food. Some of the apricots will be made into puree for the new baby and I plan on defrosting some cherries to make into puree too. I freeze in ice cube trays and then transfer to large ziplock bags and it is so easy. Not to mention so much more healthy than commercial baby food. when they are old enough I use one of my 4 baby food grinders and grind up what ever we are having for supper. Well should get to pitting the apricots. I may go and get some more this afternoon. The gentleman said to take as many as I want. I also have some green beans to turn into baby food, I made a huge batch for Hayden's birthday and have plenty of left overs, I picked yesterday and will need to pick again tomorrow. Stacie girlsingardens