> Do all newbies have this many questions? You bet! Some of us had WAY more. Luckily, people here are very generous with their answers! Don't worry, it won't be long before you are answering queries yourself. Sounds like you've had access to lots of good peaches where you are! Zabby P.S. your comment about the apple butter reminds me of one time when I was travelling with my BF and we stopped at a rural "roadside cafe" kind of place to eat. From where we were sitting we could see a shelf of what seemed to be local food products for sale --- bottles of hot sauce, jams & jellies, etc. We also saw some jars of something dark and sludge-like; we were too far away to read the label. I said, "Is that apple butter?" and BF said, "I think it's barbecue sauce." When we went up to pay, we took a closer look, and cracked up because the label actually said "Apple Butter Barbecue Sauce." Kind of your double-sludge item! ;-) Zabby

Protien is many differnt things and amounts. It add a a nearlyt pure form of protein to a jelly is not something a home canner would want to do if the jars are stored on shelves. I never have seen any commercially makde jellies, jams or other fruit spreads that contain any gelatine. Many times the USDA may not comment, but that isn't to be a way to say that is ok to use it, only that they offer no factual data. If my great grandma used it and never got sick an dthe USDA recommends it use today, an dnoone can get sick, then maybe its fine. But with home canning being as less a test in homes today, and with all the risk takers out there handed down from ancestors, I just don't feel its a justified as a defence to just post recipes that a are hand-me-downs and generations old. Who knows how many people make have been sick or died from these things as many never get reported ever. Please, just play it safe, stick to TODAYS recipes and the ones that are most recently published, researched well, and are virtually foolproof and safe for everyone. Admittedly, I am a risk taker too, but with this kind of component originating from an animal based bypoduct, we can't assume its always going to be safe for use everywhere. Gelatin was also used in surgery, lighting, and photo work. Originally Eastman was the biggest producer an user. I don't know if Eastman, or Eastman Kodak would be making jelly using gelatin?? A reduce or no sugar sprread can be MUCH easier, and MUCH SAFER to make if the proper and far safer ingredients are used. Pomona (ALSO LOW METHOXYL!! with the seperate calcium packet included) has been around a long time and is the most commonly used pectin for use in the low, no sugar jellies, jams and other thickened spreads . After that comes, modified food starches, which are now also offered to home canners by National Starch, and is commonly known as Clear Jel, and also many other more specific commercially used starches.. Its use today, as far outweighed the very negative use of flour, tapioca, regular cornstarch, or other less table thickeners.

OK, generally the line for high-acid as opposed to low-acid is 4.6 pH. The lower the number the more acid the product is, so lemons are 2.00-2.60 and peaches are 3.30-4.05. There's nothing marginal about peaches. They're an acid food and there aren't any botulism concerns unless you added low-acid product (which you didn't since berries are also high-acid). I suppose hypothetically if you canned a peach-banana jam or a peach-melon jam, you might have an issue, but here there is none. The lady you spoke to is mistaken. Think about it. If she were correct, we'd all be adding lemon juice to canned peaches. So no, I wouldn't re-process. If the seals are good, the only issue is possibly a speedier darkening or perhaps a slightly flatter flavor (depends on the peach variety) due to the lack of lemon juice. Those are trivial. You can save yourself a whole lot of time, effort and expense. I'm with Dave. In a conventional jam (not Pomona Pectin) you sometimes need additional acid not for food safety but for the set. Regular jams require a particular balance of acid, pectin and sugar. Added lemon juice can improve the setting qualities. But with Pomona that's not an issue, so in their case it's color retention and/or added piquancy of flavor. The 24-hour limit is because normally when people re-process it's because seals are untrustworthy, processing time is too short, some crucial ingredient is omitted like citric acid in tomatoes. Those are all safety issues. Beyond the 24-hour point, there may be spoilage or contamination that is not corrected by re-processing. With a low-sugar jam there's the risk of mold spores. You might not be able to see them but they could be there. With a full-sugar jam, frankly, if someone wanted to re-process beyond the 24-hour period, I don't see any reason why they couldn't. Carol

I tried to post earlier, don't know what happened. Hmmm??? Just thaw the peaches, pit and chop into about 1/2" dice. Then follow any recipe for peach jam. I've linked to the jam/jelly page at NCHFP below, there are some there, just scroll down under jam to the peach ones. Deanna Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP Jam page