Canning Pears and Making Pear Vinegar

Yesterday was the first of a series of canning parties I'm having this week. Maw Maw Martin, Maw Maw Rivero, Auntie Ginger, babies, and myself made the tiniest of dents in my bumper crop of pears. Parties are always more fun than slaving over a hot stove by yourself.

Maybe I can entice everyone to come out again with the promise of a pantry full of pumpkin pie pear butter, pear jam and pear preserves! The trees are still dripping with fruit. Enough for all of us and plenty left over to share with the chickens and wildlife.

Here's a picture of our day's worth of canning. I think we'll go a lot faster next time since we've worked out the kinks.

The reddish jars are pear jam. The yellow jars are pear preserves, and the brownish jars are pumpkin pie pear butter. This is the natural color they turned when cooked in each manner. Very very pretty. Byron is making me a canning pantry at the end of a small hall. The doors are going to be framed and stretched with chicken wire. All of our hard work is going to be so colorful and pretty peeking out of the wire. Come on Byron, get a move on I can't wait!

Here's another pic. I just love looking at them. I'm tired, but happy. There's so much satisfaction in doing this myself.

Here is a pic of the vinegar I am trying to make from some of the pear cores and peelings. The 1999 Countryside Magazine Anthology my sister Terri bought me had several directions for making vinegar.

I decided to try this simple one. You basically cover organic washed pear peelings and cores with water in a glass jar or stone crock (do not use metal), cover with cheesecloth, add fresh peelings occasionally and wait. In 4 to 6 months you should have vinegar. This concoction is already beginning to smell like apple cider vinegar. I'll let you know how it turns out.

The following recipe is out of site with biscuits and butter. I tasted some apple butter once that I really liked. It tasted like it had pumpkin pie seasonings in it, so I devised this recipe in an attempt to mimic it. I do believe I like my own better!

Pumpkin Pie Pear Butter (should make about 4 pints)

6 to 7 pounds of pears peeled cored and chopped in chunks

4 cups of sugar

2 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice (I buy it already mixed from McCormick)

1/3 cup of lemon juice (I use fresh)

1/2 cup of water

Food processor (the hand way of pushing the pears through a sieve doesn't appeal to me)

Put pears and water in large pot simmer until pears are soft. Remove pears from stove. Pulverize pear in food processor until it is the consistency of apple sauce.

Return pear sauce to pot. Add sugar, lemon juice and pumpkin pie spice. Cook while stirring occasionally until sauce mounds on spoon. (takes a while)

Fill prepared jars with butter leaving 1/4 inch head space. Cap, band and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

So unbelievably yummy.