In our last house we planted peach and nectarine trees. We absolutely loved both the trees, and the fruit they produced. As the years went by  I slowly became more of a nectarine fan. Three years ago, when we built this house we found two little nectarine trees in front of the grocery store. They were literally little sticks. We decided to buy them and plant them on the side of our house.  I never thought they would get big and I really just wondered if they would even live since they were so tiny.  Well not only did they live they grew into these two gorgeous nectarine trees. This year they are so loaded with fruit that we had to put pallets under the limbs to hold them up.  We did end up losing a few limbs, which makes me sad, but we still have so many nectarines. With so many nectarines we had to do something with them so we canned a bunch of them.

Just look at those beautiful nectarines!

 Maylee “helped” us pick some nectarines to can. By help I mean she ate one bite out of at least 10 haha. She sure loves her “apples”(thats what she calls all fruit). Once we picked all the ripe nectarines we were ready to can.

So lets get busy and can some nectarines…..
This is a picture of just my first picking.  Look at that glorious fruit in my huge farm sink.  I love everything about this picture .  You may wonder why I have started liking the tart fruit that nectarines are. One of the main reasons is they are so easy to preserve . Unlike peaches you don’t have to take the skins off and all I have to say about that is hallelujah.

 The first step in canning nectarines is putting the jars into the dishwasher.  You need hot and clean jars so this is a necessary step. While the jars are washing you can get the nectarines all clean and ready to go. You will want to wash the fruit in cold water and cut off any imperfections. You do not have to remove the skins from them because once they are canned the skin dissolves. It is miraculous and saves so much time You can remove the pits if you would like and cut them into slices or in half. Once the jars are done being cleaned, pull them out while they are warm. Fill the jars with the nectarines. This year we have also had a huge crop of blackberries so I threw a handful of blackberries in the jars of one of my batches.  While you are filling your jars place the jar lids into a saucepan with some water covering them and bring to a boil.

After your jars are packed tight but not so tight that you bruise your fruit, put 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl and add about 1/2 cup very hot water.  Stir the water and sugar until the sugar is pretty much dissolved. Pour the sugar mixture over the top of one of your jarsof necterines . Then fill the rest of your jar up with hot water.  Make sure the tops of the jars are clean, put the hot lids on and tightly put on the rings.

Fill the canner with your jars of fruit.  Mine holds 7.  Put them on the stove and cover the jars with hot water.  Turn the stove on to medium high  and cover with a lid. When they start to boil I turn mine down to medium and let them boil for 25 minutes. When the 25 Minutes is over you can take the lid off and let the pressure come off a bit.

Then very carefully take the jars out of the canner. Set them on a towel close together and cover the tops of them with another towel until they are sealed.  You’ll hear the lids pop and that is how you know they have sealed.  When they have cooled off check to make sure they are sealed by lightly touching the lid to see if they are indented.  If any of your jars have not sealed put it in your refrigerator and eat it right away.  All of my jars sealed this year.  One thing that is a must is let your jars of fruit sit on the counter for at least 24 hours.  That will assure that the seal holds.  Store them in a dark cool room. I have a dark, cool storage room that I will do a blog post about soon .  Just store and enjoy this slightly tart deliciously sweet fruit for up to 2 years.

We enjoy our canned nectarines with cream, ice cream, or just as a snack. They are so yummy and tart.  We have been so blessed with an abundance of produce this year .  Makes me think of the Song of Thanksgiving, “All things safely gathered in.”  I hope you enjoy as much as we do!