Thursday, August 18, 2011

Canning Pears {Try New Adventures Thursday!}

I broke out my canner again. {This is where you can picture me making a giddy face, because I really get a kick out of canning stuff...so old fashioned!}

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I had acquired these pears from the farmer's market, but then realized that I would be going out of town and they would be bad by the time I got back. So I decided to try my hand at canning them.

Have you discovered PickYourOwn.org?  It's an awesome resource on all things canning (along with info on u-pick farms, freezing, getting supplies). I followed their pear canning instructions on this go-round.

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I peeled, cored, and sliced those babies up (and tried to keep Squishy from eating all of them). Sprinkled them with lemon juice to keep them from turning color.

Then I made a light sugar syrup to pack the pears in (3 cups sugar, 9 cups water...at first I didn't make enough and then I had to make more...this was my total amount). Next, the pears get cooked in the sugar syrup for around 5 minutes.

Then I packed the pears into my large mouth, quart-sized Ball canning jars {swoon}. The packing part seemed a little tricky to me...once I added the syrup solution to cover the pears, it seemed like they weren't packed tightly enough. I tried adding more pears, but in the end, my pears were still floating. Oh well...any tips on this?

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After the pears are packed and covered with the sugar solution, they are boiled, covered with water, in the canner for 20 minutes.

The result was beautiful, even though I don't think I packed my pears tightly enough. All the jars sealed!

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Canning is a lot of work...I'm always trying to remind myself that I need to do it when I have TONS of fruit or veggies...but that's not always the case. In the meantime, I'm trying my hand at it in small batches. And putting my feet up afterwards. 

If you get a hankering to can some pears, here's the link again to the instructions I followed.

Or you can read all about the time I canned strawberry jam for the 1st time.

While you're contemplating the glories of old-fashioned preserving, don't forget to link up your post for Try New Adventures Thursday! Simply link up your blog post below, link back to Alicia's Homemaking, and then visit around and leave some kind comments on other people's posts. Thursday is our favorite day of the week around here...






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11 comments:

  1. Ohh... canned pears. Now I'm really hungry.

    I love PickYourOwn.org, but have never used it for anything other than finding you pick farms. I'll have to look at it for other fun stuff too.

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  2. Almost everything I can "shrinks" while it's in the canner, even if I pack the jars tight and full. Just the way it is, I guess :) Your jars look lovely!! I love canned pears... I don't think there are any pear orchards around here, though :(

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  3. I haven't canned pears before but when I did peaches I cold packed them (didn't cook them in the syrup but just cut them up and packed them in the jars and poured the hot syrup over them). It seemed like I was able to get less floating. I would check into seeing if you can do the cold packing route next time. Much easier too!

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  4. that's awesome! I haven't ever done any canning, but I've always wanted to try. Your pears look perfect! I bet they'll taste great too. :)

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  5. My mother-in-law bottles pears, and they are DELICIOUS! She is going to teach me when bottling season comes around.

    And thank you for your well-wishes, and I'm glad you understand!

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  6. I was thinking this afternoon about why stuff "floats" when you can it, and the best reason I could come up with is that it probably shrinks just like if you mound a pie full of apples and as it bakes they sink down. That doesn't explain why stuff floats in the jars, but it kinda makes sense why they take up less space in the jar after they're canned?

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  7. I get giddy when I can, too! :-) It seems like a lost art but slowly seems to be making a come back. I canned salsa this week and was glad to have another dozen jars done with my fresh tomatoes. Enjoy your pears!

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  8. The girls would totally eat up all the pears before I would be able to can them...if I canned, which I don't. =\

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  9. I'm so glad you posted this! My in-laws gave me 80lbs of pears from their trees. I'll be making some pearsauce (like applesauce but with pears). My kids love it. Have a great weekend!

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  10. I was on vacation at my parents cottage and brought home 48 ears of corn (it's the best from a farm by their cottage) so I had to freeze it and my mom told me about that website. I love it. It has tons of info on it. Can't wait to try to get to the farmers market this week. The only bad thing--no freezer space so I'll have to go get some jars to can stuff instead of freezing it. Enjoy the pears they look yummy

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  11. I missed this last week while traveling but saw photos or new of it on twitter and instagram. Canned pears sound lovely! I haven't ever seen pick your own but love it! We also have a local website where people can list their plum, apple, or cherry trees and you can find them in your hood and go picking. It's super fun and I get tons of fruit that way!

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