Giving

With the abundance of produce right now, I've gone slightly majorly overboard with making jams and jellies this month.  As if I didn't already have enough, I canned 24 more jars today.  The shelf I have designated for my preserves is not going to be able to withstand the weight of all of these jars (more than 50).  I mentioned previously that some will be gifted to friends.  And I've also decided to gift some to one of you.

To be honest, I'm a little leery about doing a give-away of my homemade preserves.  We seem to live in such a litigious society these days that I fear someone may sue me because I missed a cherry pit in the cherry preserves.  Instead of forgetting it all together, I'm opting for the wordy disclosure/disclaimer statement at the end.  (Please be sure to read.)

This is a list of the preserves I've made this month.  All jars are half pints with the exception of the rainier cherry preserves, which are in four ounce jars.

• peach jelly
• peach-champagne jelly
• chai-infused peach jelly (the best of the jellies, in my opinion)
• brown sugar peach jam
• apricot-Sauternes jam (the Sauternes makes this very sweet)
• apricot jam with hibiscus and cardamom (one of my fair entries this year)
• rhubarb-ginger jam (my personal favorite)
• apple-ginger jam
• strawberry-chipotle preserves (this one has some heat)
• cherry-chipotle preserves (more smoky than spicy)
• rainier cherry preserves
• sour cherry-almond preserves

Leave me a comment by midnight CDT July 31, 2012 telling me which four you would like to try and an e-mail address to contact you if you win.  (I won't be using your e-mail address for any other purpose, but I recommend spelling out the @ (at) and . (dot) to reduce chances of third-party spam.  I will chose one winner via random.org on August 1, 2012.  The winner will receive the four preserves of their choice. 

Ready for the (not so) fine print?

My apologies to international readers but because of the weight, I will ship the preserves (at my expense) to a U.S. address only via USPS Priority Mail.  I will do my best to package the jars in such a manner to avoid breakage.  I've had a lot of practice mailing things to my dad, so I'm getting pretty good at it.

You must select four different preserves, not four of the same kind.  Sorry, but of some I have only four jars.

These are preserves made by me in our home, not a commercially licensed or inspected kitchen.  As hard as I work to keep our kitchen clean, the fact remains that we have three dogs and dog hair can get into places one wouldn't think possible.  Every reasonable (and, frankly, unreasonable) attempt has been made to ensure all seeds and pits have been removed, but there still exists the possibility I missed one.

Our kitchen is a hot bed for common food allergens.  We are allergic to practically nothing and consistently have peanuts, peanut products, tree nuts, wheat products and dairy in our kitchen.  As I said, I make every attempt to keep a clean kitchen but I do not guarantee anything from our kitchen to be free of cross-contamination of food allergens.

It's extremely hot here right now - really hot - with no indication of relief any time soon.  I don't know what the effect of said heat will be on jars of preserves during shipping.  All preserves have been processed according to USDA guidelines; however, I can only control quality while the preserves are in my possession.

So, after all of that, if you're still interested, let me know which four you would choose and good luck!

UPDATE:  The winner is the divine Ms. Terry - congrats!