It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas - on Labor Day

So, here we were, the first weekend in September, empty nesters for the first time. We had the whole weekend before us, and what did we do?

How about canning 50 pounds of peaches?

Well, many years ago we had our tomato sauce summer, when the kids were very young. We also had our Chocolate Fruit Cake Christmas when we were first married. So mass quantities of preserved food, for us, is kind of romantic, not to mention nostalgic.

OK, so we ate a few peaches out of the box, made a peach pie, and also four jars of peach chutney. But still, here we were with two crates of peaches, one from New Jersey and one from Venezuela.

It all started with a New York Times Magazine article on canning brandied peaches last month. Why, we thought, wouldn't this make a fantastic Christmas gift idea? Lots of ripe peaches, first rate brandy, and snappy jars! What could be better?

Figuring out the assemblage of pots on our four burners was the trickiest part. It involved closely choreographed kitchen ballet, moving the pots and pans back and forth as each step was completed.

(Also, I burned a finger halfway through the evening and had to keep ice on it the rest of the time. Remember that when you're enjoying your peaches, if you are a lucky recipient this Christmas.)

The entire kitchen smelled great, and became very, very sticky. I am still finding sugar on the cabinet door handles. Also, I think we went through 18 dish towels.

The hinged lid Italian jars (above and below) are very attractive, but they're very awkward to use. The two-part Leifheit jars were almost as attractive, and much easier to fit in the big stock pot.

The first night we canned the crate of white peaches. By the end of the evening, we were getting pretty fast!

Just for the record, the brandy was quite good.

Four hours later, and only one crate processed. So we saved the yellow peaches for Tuesday night (besides, they weren't quite ripe yet).

In the end, I am happy to report that we also had to use my extensive collection of Bonne Maman jelly jars, lovingly collected for many years. I knew they would come in handy one day! (That single purple jar lid was, I think, from a jar of boysenberry jam from last summer. Probably some kind of seasonal, limited edition thing.) All told, we preserved 46 jars of brandied peaches and four jars of chutney!

Of course, we just had to try a jar ourselves.