When we moved here and we discovered that we had a pear tree in the back yard I began to worry. I'd never canned pears before in my life and I'd heard that they were pretty time consuming. And after a year of nectarines on our other tree I KNEW I'd need to can them. Last year was a failure for my pears. I read you were suppose to pick them before they were ripe because they ripened from the inside out on the tree. In my anxiety about leaving them on the tree too long I picked most of them too soon and my big box of pears all shriveled in the basement. There were a few pears that I left on the tree and they got big and beautiful. So this year I promised myself to get it right. I waited a little longer and picked them the 14th of September, put them in the fridge for three days then put them in the basement to ripen.
And ripen they did( it took about a week )! But with every shade of yellow they passed through the more I realized that I was going to actually have to can them. A friend of mine offered to help me with my first time canning them but the day before she was to come over I walked into my basement and was greeted by the strong smell of ripe pears. I knew I couldn't wait much longer. So as soon as I got Hyrum off to preschool and Noah for a nap I set to work.
I started with the smaller ones first so if I messed them up it wouldn't be so bad. But I was able to get all of them put into 4 quarts and processing in an hour and a half.
This is around how big the smaller ones were.
The next day I decided to do the bigger ones in the morning before it got too hot out. And I was able to get 13 quarts and a pint out of them. I was starting to get the hang of it. And even though it took longer to prepare them than peaches they weren't as horrible as I thought they would be.
I can't claim inspiration for the melon baller for the core remover idea. That was an idea from another friend but I've also found a contraption online that is designed specifically for pear coring and will look into investing in that in the future.
This is how big the bigger ones were. Aren't they beautiful? Those are from MY tree! Amazing!
Here are my pears at the end of the day canned and beautiful. And better than that FREE!!! I can't tell you how amazing it feels to pick produce out of your backyard and preserve it. Not only is it free but it is efficient and eliminates waste. And I'm discovering how very much I dislike waste.
This is my favorite shelf in our food storage. I think it's beautiful. (And yes those are bags of chocolate chips in my food storage...it's comfort food! )
6 comments:
Brei said...
So jealous! Wish I had fruit trees. I know someone who keeps chocolate and tampons (like, loads of them) in her food storage-she plans on that being a major source of income when we need our food storage-she's sure men will pay whatever they need to for them!!
Pam said...
I am so impressed! Your pears are beautiful!! And to think you did it alone the very first time. Yea Kitchen Goddess!
Nikki said...
Good job!!!
Laurie said...
You did a beautiful job, hurray for you! I love canning pears because I have such wonderful memories of my grandma teaching me and of canning them with Hallie.
Laurie said...
And it looks like you have your pantry filled with gold, amber and rubies!
Harrisons said...
They look beautiful. And I'm so proud of how many you got. My pears turned out great but they're not as pretty as yours because I sliced them. And I saw all those chocolate chips on the shelf above. Wasn't there a limit of 6 bags per household at that sale? ha ha ha!