Fall Harvest

We have been doing LOTS of canning in the last few months. We have had the unexpected blessing of having beautiful berries, and pears given to us. We have been able to find peaches and more pears too. We are looking forward to still getting apples from a friend. We have been doing lots of playing too. Enjoying just eating fat, juicy, yummy berries (I should have taken picts), and playing with new recipes.

Ceana learned how to make peach pie all by herself this year. They were beautiful and VERY yummy! Of course it is always wonderful to see many beautiful jars sitting on the shelves and know that they are worth all the work.


We have so many cases of canned pears this year, that we wanted to try something different. We were hoping to do apple-pear sauce - but the pears arrived early, and the apples still havent come on yet. So we played with combining a couple different recipes and came up with our own creation of Spiced Pear Sauce - and, boy, is it YUMMY!
We got a late start on things yesterday, but everyone was willing to stay up and help. The girls and I cranked out the sauce out on the deck, with the little people all helping too. They thought it was great fun to turn the crank of applesauce "maker" (should have taken picts - would have if I had been awake enough) It was late, and we were all extra tired, which probably explained the giggle fits we got into. We also listened to the CHS varsity team whip Estacada - both the JV & Varsity teams are rockin' already this year with all wins and no losses.
Preston manned the kitchen jobs, getting all the fruit and spices into the jars and running 2 batches at a time on the stove. I think he stayed up until 2am finishing the last batches. I got to taste some today from the couple of "leftover" jars, and I was so excited about how extra yummy it was after sitting in the fridge. The cinnamon and vanilla added the perfect touch - thanx to ML and JT for the awesome recipes!