Pear Preserves - A Story
One of my biggest goals on the farm is trying to learn as much as I can from the experts who have lived on this land. Canning and preserving food is just as important as learning to grow that food. It’s wonderful to have that fresh out of the garden produce on the dinner table but one can only eat so much. Preservation will Allow us to enjoy the bounty of our garden during fall and winter.
There a three pear trees on the property but it is the youngest tree that has produce all the pears this year. I am used to the pretty store bought pears so these oddly shaped and tough skinned fruit had me concerned about the flavor. My first Crisp sliver of the fresh pear changed my mind. It was a nice mildly sweet flavor.
I helped my mother in law pick a basket of fruit one day but the next day while I was busy at the barn, she cleaned the tree getting every last fruit off that tree. I came in later to find her peeling and slicing up her pears. After dinner and a shower, I pitched in to help. I made a mess. Pear slices flew everywhere no matter how hard I tried to keep them in the container. A few flew into my mouth but just a few, I was still full from dinner.
My mother in law used two large plastic bowls to hold all the fruit. I watched her place a lajyer of fruit about an inch then she would sprinkle a cup of sugar sometimes two cups over the fruit as she went. Once we sliced up the last of the pears, she added the last of the sugar on top of the sliced pieces then covered the sugared fruit with a lid. I could not even guess how much sugar she used. The bowls were large and it was a lot of fruit.
The containers sat overnight and in the morning she showed me how much syrup was in the bottom of the containers. She judged it was more than enough liquid to start processing the fruit. She poured both containers into a large pot, turned the burner on a medium-high heat and waited for the pears to come to a boil. She stirred the fruit often during this step.
The fruit came to a rolling boil, the temperature was turned down to low and let the pears simmer. It took several hours for the pears to reach the consistency that she wanted. Once they were done to her liking, she ladled the fruit into hot mason jars, sealed them and let the jars seal on the counter. All but one jar sealed.
The next morning after working up an appetite in the garden, I popped some frozen biscuits in the oven to go with our eggs and sausage. They were the perfect delivery system for pear preserves from table to my mouth. The pears were delicious. Kudos to my mother in law. I hope that next year, I can be more of a participant and maybe even get a video of the process.
As for the leftover unused pear pieces, it’s one of the nice things about having chickens. They will eat almost anything so I bagged up four gallon bags of left over pear peels and cores for chicken treats at a later date. It makes me happy to know that nothing goes to waste.
See the entire video of Pear Preserves on my channel.
