Yesterday, my boys and I picked pears at my sister-in-laws house. She has a great pear tree that is absolutely loaded! We were invited to pick to our heart's content...and we did!
We picked a little over a bushel basket which I believe is considered a "peck" if I was buying it at the farm stand.
I am planning to make pear butter and pies and I will be sharing the goods with relatives. Speaking of relatives...that's my nephew up in the pear tree.
This will be my very first time canning and I am nervous! I will be following directions from the "Ball" canning cookbook so I know I will be using a good recipe. The recipe calls for 20 medium sized pears and yields 4 pints of pear butter. These pears are small so I am figuring 40 pears for one recipe.
I will let the pears ripen for a couple days before cooking them.
From what I have read, pears do not ripen until they are picked. They are picked hard and then will begin to soften after a couple days.
I am a total beginner at this canning thing, so please, wish me luck!!!!
I will post my canning endeavor as soon as I am finished. Look for my "Pear Butter" post on Monday or Tuesday. Until then, I will be posting other things.
love your baskets
ReplyDeleteWow! What a rush of good memories. I haven't had fresh picked pears in years. What you buy in the stores can't be called fresh fruit. Ha ha. Looking forward to what you come up with.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pears. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteSuzanne
Bonnie, I noticed your reply on Suzannes blog about your pear crop. I was given a huge sack of pears recently, (I hate pears!!) and last Friday I made some WONDERFUL recipes with them and canned them up. They included 2 types of pear honey and some pear marmalade for something a little different. They turned out beautifully, and even I, the pear hater, LOVED them!! I posted the recipes and some photos on my blog--I hope you will come over and try them out! And don't worry--canning is NOT hard--You'll do FINE!! Let me know what you think!
ReplyDelete