Well, I suppose that proves it. Summer is really over. When we woke up this morning, it was threatening to be a gray, cloudy day. As the morning went along, it started to rain, and has been a nice, slow drizzle ever since.
No sitting outside enjoying the sunshine today.
You know, as much as I love the sunshine and warmth of summer, the flowers, the bike rides and outside time, there’s something homey and snuggly about the first rains of Autumn. It’s the perfect time for snuggling up with a soft, fuzzy Mr. Bob, for one thing.
I think he'd prefer I stay in this chair all day.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bob will have to snuggle with Little Girl on the bed, as I’ve got things to do around the house. Today’s top priority will be doing something with the second harvest of pears off the little tree in the front yard.
A little wormy, but not too bad. And mostly ripe.
I’ve already tried my hand at canning preserves and been pretty successful. Emboldened, I’ve decided to try canning them in syrup. I followed the general instructions I found here. I don’t have any citric acid or lemon juice, so I soaked the pears in water with white vinegar and salt. They stayed nice and white while I was peeling and cutting.
Lovely pears, sliced up
Next step, get the syrup ready.
Boiling the sugar and water for the syrup.
And the jars.
They look like ghosts
Pack the pear slices in the jars.
I used a slotted spoon to strain the pears.
Next, cover the pears with the boiling syrup.
Cover the pears, but leave about 1/2 an inch.
Everything I’ve read says it’s important to get the air bubbles out, so I did my best. The pears were packed in pretty tightly, and the syrup was quite hot.
Getting the bubbles out.
Ready to put the lids on. This little ingenious devices has a magnet on the end, perfect for lifting the lids out of the boiling water.
I love the lid magnet tool!
Screw the rings on tightly and place the jars into the hot water bath and start the boiling process.
They certainly make some interesting sounds when they're boiling!
I let them come to a boil and then set a timer for about 10 minutes. Then I pulled them out of the water and set them on the counter to cool.
Don't those look delicious?
Not bad for my first foray into canning fruit. I think I’m getting the hang of this whole canning thing! It’s so exciting, I keep finding myself looking for other things to can.
Have you done any canning or preserving? How’d it turn out?
a full plate 
Dang, you’ve been seriously busy with harvesting and canning. We haven’t done any jarring/canning ourselves, mostly because the process seems scarily easy to mess up. I’d be constantly afraid I’d contaminate everything. But your pears look awesome. What are you planning on doing with them?
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It’s really really easy, as it turns out. I’m not doing anything with meat yet. I think that’s the next level, and it still intimidates me. And I haven’t done anything that involves adding pectin. Just straight preserves, and now cut fruit.
I’d like to do nopales and maybe some sauces.
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