Pears ate my weekend
Sep. 8th, 2006 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotsofplantsSo, I was wandering around on craigslist skimming the free ads (cute kittens!) and noticed an ad titled "free pears" from a family with pear trees and no desire to eat pears. I thought, "I like pears!" and I e-mailed them that I would be happy to come pick some of their pears.
I picked a goodly pile of not-quite-ripe pears. (Pears will finish ripening just fine off the tree.)
The goodly pile of pears was placed in my bedroom, where the cats could not decide they were cat toys.
Pears, like most fruit, produce ethylene as they ripen. Ethylene tends to both speed and (more important) synchronize fruit ripening. Note that my bedroom is an enclosed space, which quickly generated a strong (but not unpleasent) ripe pear smell.
I borrowed my mom's canning equipment and unpacked my food dehydrator.
One Labor Day weekend later:
You are correct, there are 37 quarts of canned pears there. Two other quarts were canned but not present for the photo--one went to my Mom, the other was sacrificed in the name of "I really need to know if these are going to taste any good before I spend any more time canning." I think the pears were somehow multipling as I canned, and it's amazing how long it takes to peel that many pears.
The ripe pears in the foreground were dried after the photo was taken--the approximately half-gallon of dried pears in the picture represent about 9 quart jars, had I canned them.
In retrospect, I think I misjudged how many pears I picked--I think I ended up with close to 2 bushels, which would be around 80-100lbs or 3 paper-boxes full.
On the other hand, I'm wondering if I'm likely to find an ad for free Italian plums, which are excellent dried, don't have to be peeled, and I have this nice little food dehydrator...
I picked a goodly pile of not-quite-ripe pears. (Pears will finish ripening just fine off the tree.)
The goodly pile of pears was placed in my bedroom, where the cats could not decide they were cat toys.
Pears, like most fruit, produce ethylene as they ripen. Ethylene tends to both speed and (more important) synchronize fruit ripening. Note that my bedroom is an enclosed space, which quickly generated a strong (but not unpleasent) ripe pear smell.
I borrowed my mom's canning equipment and unpacked my food dehydrator.
One Labor Day weekend later:
You are correct, there are 37 quarts of canned pears there. Two other quarts were canned but not present for the photo--one went to my Mom, the other was sacrificed in the name of "I really need to know if these are going to taste any good before I spend any more time canning." I think the pears were somehow multipling as I canned, and it's amazing how long it takes to peel that many pears.
The ripe pears in the foreground were dried after the photo was taken--the approximately half-gallon of dried pears in the picture represent about 9 quart jars, had I canned them.
In retrospect, I think I misjudged how many pears I picked--I think I ended up with close to 2 bushels, which would be around 80-100lbs or 3 paper-boxes full.
On the other hand, I'm wondering if I'm likely to find an ad for free Italian plums, which are excellent dried, don't have to be peeled, and I have this nice little food dehydrator...
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-09 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-09 04:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-09-09 04:20 am (UTC)I've been wondering whether it's time to start picking the pears on my tree. It's so hard to tell when they're ready (and I've read, as you say, that they ripen off the tree; some books say you should expressly pick them *before* they're ripe.) But it seems to me they were ready later than this last year.
I don't know if I'll get a chance to can; I'm considering donating my excess to the local food bank this year. They said they'd accept it, strangely enough.
If I do, though, what's a good source for the jars and lids?
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-09-09 04:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-09 04:36 am (UTC)If I was more ambitious (and slightly less retarded in the kitchen) I'd love to do that kind of mass food-saving extravaganza once in a while. Hmm... the idea of a food preserves monthly club/co-op is now rumbling around in my brain...
no subject
Date: 2006-09-09 11:55 pm (UTC)Any chance I could nab one? :) I can even stop by and pick it up some evening...