Ingredients:
4 pounds nectarines, cut up and pitted
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 medium onion, quartered
1 clove garlic
1 small jalapeno
2 teaspoons hot paprika
2 teaspoons chipotle
1/2 teaspoon ground roasted ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Prep jars/lids Place the nectarines, onion, garlic and jalapeno in a food processor or blender. Pulse until nearly smooth. Pour into a heavy bottomed pot and stir in the remaining ingredients. Simmer over low heat until thickened to barbecue sauce consistency, 10-20 minutes. Ladle into prepared jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process in a hot water bath for 20 minutes.

Yield: about 7 8-oz jars + 1 4-oz jar

Note: A great source for canning information is the Blue Book guide to preserving. I highly recommend it for learning how to can. Here is a bunch of other canning books and equipment I find useful.

My thoughts:

When Sweet Preservation emailed me asking if I’d like to be a Canbassador, spreading the canning word, of course I jumped at the opportunity. I’d been to the website before while looking for modern, stylish looking jar labels so I knew they were my kind of canners. Sweet Preservation is a product of the Washington State Fruit Commission and they asked if I would like to have some fruit shipped to me from Washington. Of course I did! I wasn’t sure what I was going to get so I was excited to open the box and find plums, nectarines and peaches. Our favorites! I know we are starting to transition into apples, pears and winter squash but many stone fruits are still perfectly in season. You know how much I love to extend summer as much as possible and these fruits were super juicy and flavorful.

I had canned the nectarine-aprium butter a week before this arrived so I felt comfortable canning nectarines in a non-jam way again. I like that nectarine skin is so thin you don’t have to peel them; so much better than peaches! I just blitzed them in the Vitamix, stirred in some more ingredients, simmered and it is ready to can in just about the same amount of time it took to bring my huge canning pot to boil.

This barbecue sauce hits the perfect note of hot-sweet and is fruity to boot. I can’t wait to try it in the dead of winter when I need a little cheering up. It tastes like a hot summer day in a jar.