Pear Kingdom

We have been canning pears. Short time ago Murphy and our friend Quenella got some pears. Ours ripen quickly and her hasn’t yet.

So we got 17 pints of pears done up.

CANNING PEARS
Choose ripe, mature fruits of ideal quality for eating fresh or cooking. Wash and peel pears. Cut lengthwise into halves and remove cores. (A melon baller or metal measuring spoon is suitable for coring pears.)

To prevent discoloration, keep pears in an ascorbic acid solution.

Prepare a very light, light or medium syrup or pack pears in apple juice, white grape juice or water. Boil drained pears 5 minutes in syrup, juice or water. Raw packs result in poor quality pears. Fill hot jars with hot fruit and cooking liquid, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Adjust lids and process.

MEASURES:
FOR 9 PINTS OR 4 QUARTS: For very light syrup (10 percent sugar), use 6 1/2 cups of water and 3/4 cup sugar; for light syrup (20 percent sugar), use 5 3/4 cups of water and 1 1/2 cups sugar; for medium syrup (30 percent sugar), sue 5 1/4 cups water and 2 1/4 cups sugar.

FOR 7 QUARTS: For very light syrup, use 10 1/2 cups water and 1 1/4 cups sugar; for light syrup use, 9 cups water and 2 1/4 cups sugar; for medium syrup, use 8 1/4 cups water and 3 3/4 cups sugar.

PEAR HALVES IN A BOILING-WATER CANNER:
HOT PACK, PINTS: Process for 20 minutes.

HOT PACK, QUARTS: Process for 25 minutes.

CINNAMON PEARS: Add 2 sticks cinnamon and a few drops of red food coloring per quart of syrup. Remove cinnamon before packing fruit. Follow directions for hot pack pear halves.

PINEAPPLE PEARS: Use pineapple juice in place of water for the syrup. Follow directions for hot pack pear halves.

MINT PEARS: Add oil of peppermint and green food coloring a drop at a time until syrup is flavored and colored as desired. Cook pears in syrup 10 minutes before packing. Follow directions for hot pack pear halves.

It sure takes a long time to do Pear butter. We cook ours down in oven so you don’t have to stir as often.
So we got 9 half pints of pear butter.
I read about doing it in the crock-pot. May some time I’ll give that a whirl

Directions for Making Pear Butter

Yields about 9 - 10 pints

Ingredients and Equipment

.

8 quarts of pear sauce
· 1.5 teaspoons nutmeg
· 1/2 teaspoon cloves
· 1/4 teaspoon Allspice
· 2 teaspoons grated orange peel (just the surface, not the spongy white part) or 1 teaspoon orange extract
· 1 cup orange juice
· 6 cups sugar
· Jar grabber (to pick up the hot jars)
· Lid lifter (has a magnet to pick the lids out of the boiling water where you sterilize them. ($2 at Target, other big box stores, and often grocery stores; and available online - see this page)
· Jar funnel ($2 at Target, other big box stores, and often grocery stores; and available online - see this page)
· 1 Crock pot (slow cooker)
· Large spoons and ladles
· 1 Canner (a huge pot to sterilize the jars of pear butter after filling (about $30 to $35 at mall kitchen stores, sometimes at big box stores and grocery stores.))
· Ball jars (Grocery stores, like Publix, Kroger, Safeway carry them, as do some big box stores - about $8 per dozen quart jars including the lids and rings)

· Processes pints 10 minutes in boiling bath water

Soon drying on clothes line will soon come to and end. I have dried clothes on line outdoors. It’s what I call freeze-drying ones clothes.

This morning I hung two loads on the line. Mostly what was hung up to dry was jeans.

But I did a load later in day. This load of laundry I did a medium load of colors. I decided to get out the winter drying rack and stick it by the stove.
Our days are getting shorter. The sun goes down behind the mountain at about 5:54 (PDT) pm. So using the clothesline outdoors isn’t as feasible when it summer. But we’re not making as big as carbon footprint as using a dryer full time. I do have a dryer and use it

Both of the boys are up this weekend. I believe money is tight for them. They’re renting a mobile home for $ 400 a month.

I believe Sawyer money is a little more plentiful then his brother Bart. So Sawyer out at mud bog in Moyie Spring.

We do help the boys with care packages and with odds and ends. Murphy took Bart up on Myrtle Creek and got load of firewood that needs to be tossed into back of Sawyer pick up.