Put up or shut up

I've been threatening to can all summer long, but never got up the gumption. But when our friends Nick and Russ contacted us about canning up a bunch of stuff this past weekend, we jumped at the chance. That Nick chooses to spend his birthday weekend cooking and canning is but one of the reasons we love him so.

It was dirty, sweaty, steamy, grueling work, but the fruits of our labors were great: 12 half-pints of pumpkin butter, 28 half-pints of fig preserves and 38 half-pints of pear butter ... and we only conquered about half of the pears that they brought. (Nick is finishing the remainder today.)

I'll be posting notes, recipes and photos over the next few days, so stay tuned!

(Photo: DPaul Brown)