Peddling Pear Preservation Pleasantries!

Several weeks ago, one of our local Mennonite grocers had notices posted about taking orders for cases of Bartlett pears and concord grapes. Of course, I ordered both! I got the call that the pears came in, almost 2weeks ago, picked them up, and they were green and hard. I was disappointed, but because right after I'd ordered them, my youngest daughter(whom I'd not seen in over a year, called to let me know she was coming for a 3day visit - the longest she's managed to get off work for a trip, in 4yrs), I shoved the pears out of the way, and nearly forgot about them.

This morning, I dragged the case back out, fully expecting to move it to the compost, instead of putting them by, for winter. But, not a fruit fly to be found, which I though odd forwhat would surely be a half-rotted case of fruit, right? I took the top off the case, and therein was a beautiful case of lovely, yellow, perfectly ripe, incredibly sweet, flavorful pears, waiting to be put by! For a change, I'm thrilled at the timing! So far, I've filled 5 trays for the dehydrator (&am hoping the watermelon candy & dried green tomatoes dry quickly, to free up the other 5 trays), and have made a pear cake to lightly drizzle with spiced honey, for tonight's dessert, and the spices are simmering now, to add to more honey, for freezing yet more pears in, for winter desserts, and possibly for pear leather. There may well be some pickled pears, spiced pear butter, and pear jam finding its way to our pantry shelves, in the next day or two, as well. Oddly, though, I'm most looking forward to the dried ones... and, those grapes (which I'm not sure if they have seeds, but if they do, I'm probably going to try to grow some, too) ought to be in, next week!

Wow, that was a blessing!

Because of the drought, our pear tree dropped most of its fruit early this year, and I had a bucket of small, hard green pears. I didn't know if they'd ripen if left, so instead I chopped them up, boiled them, strained off the juice, boiled it again with sugar and citric acid, and ended up with amazing pear cordial. So much better than I'd expected, as I'd been kicking myself for not making a chutney or similar instead.
Sadly, the cordial was so good, the three bottles didn't last long. All gone already!

I've read that pears are best if you pick them underripe and then keep them for ripening. The process is called bletting. It can include cold storage, which allows you to ripen them in batches for a longer season.

I have only preserved pears one way because I've never had my own pear tree. The most abundant fruits here are apricots, and I've always made apricot jam, just apricots and sugar, more of a preserve than a pectin-type jam. I love it, but it's always the same and very intense.

For a change, I like to make a mixed fruit jam (actually preserves). It's simply equal parts by weight apricots, bananas and soft pears. I have to buy bananas that are grown elsewhere. I chop everything up small and cook it together. Sometimes I can it in jars just like that, and usually I add some lemon, sugar and maybe a dash of ginger or vanilla. Sometimes I think it's more highly flavored without the lemon and sugar. It has a rich tropical taste somehow, as if the combination creates mango, I don't know. It would be equally amazing with tart intense peaches.

Actually, Concord grapes and ripe soft pears would make a nice mixed preserve or fruit butter. If I had them, I'd try gently cooking the concord grapes down till they're all soft and juicy, and then running them through the food mill to remove skins and seeds. Then I'd chop the pears small and simmer them in the grape juice till it thickens enough to be a spread. Maybe run the pears through the food mill to make it smooth, or maybe keep them chopped small for nice lumps.

I wish I had concord grapes....

That sounds like a happy accident! I sometimes have overripe pears from the shop, and drying them is my normal way of preserving (I don't have enough at a time for jam type preserves). Dried pears are delicious! Like sweeties (candy) enjoy!

So far, I've a couple quarts in the freezer, with the spiced honey syrup, 10 trays in the dehydrator, made that yummy cake, eaten way more than I should(so has John), gave some to the neighbors, and now, Rebecca's post brought to mind the jar of rumtopf that would be all the lovelier, for some. They're getting super soft, and need to be finished, today, so I'm going to can some, with a few bits of whole allspice, cinnamon sticks, star anise, and a few peppercorns in each jar, a honey simple syrup, and some lemon juice. Whenever I'm tired of messing with jars, I'll mash up the rest and cook it, reduce it down, and make a spiced fruit leather with whatever is left. All the odd bits, seed casings, stems and blossom ends well go to the compost.

Hmmm... maybe I'll learn how to save pear seeds, and plant some, too!

Rebecca Norman wrote:I wish I had concord grapes....

A taste of home...

At this point, my goal is 2-fold: Get the rest put up before they start to draw fruit flies, and hopefully get a few days break, before the TWO cases(oh, lawdy, WHAT was I thinking) of grapes arrive.

That's great Carla! Yummy pears!

Just a couple words of advice for future readers...

I harvested a couple bushels from a friend's tree, and washed them all up, leaving them to dry in the sun. I came back that evening to find that all the sun kissed portions of the pears were too soft. Unusable. Nasty. So make sure you cover them if you leave them outside to dry. From this experience I assume bletting needs to be done under cover as well.

Four quarts of halves in the canner, now, a few pears made it into the rumtopf crock, and all the scraps that can be used are cooking down, probably for jam, possibly for leather. Only 4 whole pears didn't make the cut, and they're getting chopped up, and going out to the chickens. The seeds that I can, I'll save & plant, and the rest of the trimmings and such will go to the compost. Not a thing wasted, and even the whole ones that are going to the chickens are only going out because they had been smooshed in the bottom of the crate - nothing I could have done about that.

I'm not sure how much of a break I'll get, before those grapes come, but I just bought a couple of HUGE (10lb+@,  for a total of $10!) longneck squash from the Mennonite farmer who processes our birds, when we dropped off a gifted turkey... apparently, I'm a glutton for punishment! Oh, and John picked up the turkey today - it dressed out at a little over 30lbs. The blessings are raining down, and I'm EVER so GRATEFUL!!!