Summer has arrived, in spite of the cool, wet spring – and I have been spending so much time in the kitchen lately. I’ve almost constantly had little projects here and there going, which honestly has kept me from the computer quite a bit (as my email inbox would attest to – sorry everyone, I’ll respond as quickly as I can!) What have I been working on? Well, I’ve been caaaaaaaaaanning. Jumping off from my pickling binge, I have been busily making fruit butters and putting them up for holiday gifts, hostess gifts, etc… What kind you ask? Well, it started off with a handful of less-than-perfect apricots from a FFTY delivery and three pints of Apricot butter, and recently ballooned in to 2 five-gallon buckets of wild plums being turned in to twenty-four pints of Plum Butter, 9 pints of Plum Ketchup, 10 pints of Plum Chutney, and 5 qts Plums in light syrup.

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