It really was a lot of work, but a lot of fun too, and SOOO worth it to look at all the beautiful jars sitting on the countertops, and to think about how yummy they will be during the next year.
The pears were so pretty to start with, such a nice color. Plus they tasted SOOOO good. Normally I dont like fresh pears, but these were SO sweet and juicy that I couldnt help eating lots of them, and making sure Preston left some to go in the fridge and not just in the bottles.
Apparently, Preston's mom has a tradition of adding food coloring to her pears. Preston thought it would be fun - which brought a huge gasp from me - (just not something I have ever seen before) The kids thought it was great fun, and when I finally relaxed too, I had fun playing with the jars and watching the food coloring seep through all the air pockets in the jars. As you can see, they turned out very colorful and fun! They will be fun to eat too!
3 comments:
Okay, I want so badly to learn how to do pears. My mom keeps telling me it isn't worth all the work it requires but your bottles look so beautiful. Would you mind passing along a brief breakdown of what you do?
1) Drop pears into boiling water for 1 minute. Immediately put pears into ice water (to stop the cooking). Skins almost "fall off" of the fruit.
2) Hire a cute 14-year-old to sit and cut open the pears to remove the pit and stem. (Cut moms can help at the end of the process if you're doing more than 60 jars.) Put the fruit into clean jars.
3) Fill jars with syrup ... we used 1/2 cup sugar per gallon of water. If you mix the syrup in a punch pitcher it's pretty easy. Add a lid and ring.
4) Process for 25 minutes. We used a steam canner my mom got for us (first use!). It took about 10 minutes for the water to boil enough to start the timer.
5) Remove from steamer (or hot water bath, if that's the process you used), and set out on counter to cool. Take pictures, post on your blog and brag about how wonderful they look.
We did pears one year only. I loved them but getting the skins off was not fun. And yes we did blanch them first.
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