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I ordered 40 pounds of nectarines from Azure Standard this month. When I ordered them, it didn’t sound like very much (I actually thought about ordering 60 pounds). But when I got them and they were staring at me from their good-sized boxes, 40 pounds was more than enough. Then I had to figure out what nectarine recipes to use them all in!

I have only canned conventionally one time when a friend gave me a lesson on peaches last year. It was a full day but seemed quite manageable, so I thought I would have no trouble with canning. Hmmm. My original plan was to can one box and do a combination of fermenting and freezing for the second box. My plans changed.

Here’s the end result of my conventional canning. It took me pretty much all day and I ended up with 4 pints of Spicy Nectarine Butter (recipe in Ball canning book) and a house that was about 400 degrees.
The freezer became my friend that day. I now have about 16 quarts of nectarines in the freezer. When I was more ambitious, I removed the peels on them and laid some out on cookie sheets to freeze so they will be good for smoothies. In the end, I was lucky to get the pits out of them and cut them in half. I also pureed some to put in little 4-ounce containers to freeze for future yogurt flavoring.
I did manage to put up a few ferments. I love doing ferments and have done quite a few in the past, most with good results. I can do a jar or two at a time, and it does not heat up the house. The only drawback to ferments is needing to keep them in cold storage. We do not have a cellar, which would be wonderful for storing ferments.
We do currently have a second fridge that my sister has loaned us, so that is usually where my ferments end up (along with extra eggs and milk and anything that I don’t want the kids to snack on), plus I have a cold closet that is perfect for keeping ferments during the winter months.
I did two jars of Nectarine Chutney. I adapted the recipe for Fruit Chutney in Nourishing Traditions to satisfy the ingredients I had on hand.
Here are four jars of what I hope will become Nectarine Syrup. As a guide, I used the recipe for Raspberry Syrup in Nourishing Traditions. I did two of the jars plain and two spiced. I just put these together yesterday, so they need to sit at room temperature until tomorrow. I did burp the jars a bit ago (to keep them from exploding), and they looked very nice and smelled wonderful.
I saved the peels from the nectarines that I removed and plan to make Nectarine Honey. But my plan is just to make the juice part now and freeze it, and then when the temps are lower and I want the house heated up, I’ll do the water bath canning part.

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What are your favorite nectarine recipes? Leave a comment below!

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