Canning Pears

Besides my own pear tree that is producing wonderfully this year, my mother has several pear trees.  Early last week she sent an S.O.S. for too many pears, and my husband loves canned pears, so off we went.  It was a rainy morning and we had to delay our plans over an hour waiting for the rain to clear.  I will not soon forget wrestling that pear tree in 90% humidity with rain dripping off of the leaves.  It was hot.  And the yellow jackets were trying to defend their fruit.  I swear those things will follow a ripe pear right into your mouth.  You have to be careful.  A few of them body slammed me but no one was mad enough to sting.  There was plenty for everyone.

You really want to pick directly off of the tree.  Pears ripen from the inside out and a pear that has fallen is not only likely to be bruised, but will also be too far along in ripeness to handle easily when paring.  If a pear is NOT almost ripe, you basically can not pull it off with a picker, no matter how hard you try.  My husband and I picked one bushel from the Bartlett tree and another bushel from an unidentified tree which I believe is a Seckel.  They are beautiful pears.  After being dragged through the wet orchard, and sweating from my eyeballs I had to do a Walmart run.  Man that all wiped me out.  This was one of the first times that "normal activity" made me feel old.  I had to take a nap.

My next door neighbor had offered to help me can pears.  Actually what happened is that I offered to bring her pears and she didn't skip a beat before saying "Misery loves company.  I'll do it if you do it with me." That's fine.  I've never actually canned pears and she has a gas stove which is so much better for water bath canning.  And I wanted to do quarts which my turkey fryer method is not optimal for because of the number of quarts it holds (doesn't hold).  Neighborlady used to can pears a lot when they lived down the road and had a pear tree.  And her mother canned pears so it was a nostalgia thing for her.  We spread the two bushels out in her barn to ripen and cull through.

 So far we have canned two batches of 7 quarts each and have used about half of these pears.  Pears continue to ripen at room temperature and we can choose the perfect stage to can them.  Also, as we got comfortable with what our yield was going to be, we got a lot more liberal will culling instead of trying to salvage as much as we could from a knotty or bruised pear.  

It is difficult to explain how to tell when a pear is the perfect ripeness.  It is that moment when the skin begins to feel alive.  The color also changes subtly from green to gold and the blossom end takes on a russet color.  (I've had a lot of practice because for several weeks I have had a basket of pears on my counter. 

 As soon as they mellow they go into the fridge basket to chill for eating.  A Bartlett pear must be a difficult crop to get to market looking pretty.  These all have some degree of sooty blotch on their skins.  And they are not particularly easy to peal.  Juice galore.  No wonder store bought canned pears have no taste.  They must have to process them green when they still have not developed any taste.

Well they all eat the same.

Nothing compares to the taste of home canned pears in light syrup.  For years I have gone to the county fairs and wonder how canned goods are judged.  Well!  I sure could judge the canned pears now.  I know exactly what variables there are.  Headspace.  Color.  Packing.  Purity of the syrup.  Spots on the pears.  I almost want to do one quart with the best pears just to see if I could turn out one at my personal best.  Below is my share of the first two batches.  We are taking a break today (Neighborlady processed tomatoes yesterday and she's a bit whooped) and tomorrow is another canning day.

I am no canning expert, but if you would like to know more about the process of canning pears, here is a link to a good YouTube video that will explain it well.

Autumn Decor

 Now that September is here we have begun our fall chores: shampooing rugs, washing tractors, cutting cornstalks, taking apart the pumpkin patch.  That comes with a bonus.  It is time for a decor change at the side porch.

I have been growing these purple pepper plants in the garden and enjoying them there, but now they are front and center.  I also am in love with these dark green pumpkins.  They are a result of using seeds from last year's pumpkins which were obviously cross pollinated with zucchinis.  I am definitely going to include dark green (or black) pumpkin seeds in next year's order.

The Black Pearl peppers are my favorite.

When the peppers ripen they turn cherry red.

I still have pumpkins in the pumpkin patch curing.  You should leave them on the vine until you can no longer leave a dent with your thumbnail.

Here is a picture from last year's side porch display.

Coleus Cuttings

 My earliest Coleus cuttings have put out roots.  It was amazing.  None for days and days and then all of a sudden... quarter inch roots.

I have to say that these tubes are not easy to keep filled with water.  I would go out most mornings and half of the cuttings would be high and dry.  But they are amazingly resilient.  I am happy to get them into some soil.  I stuck them in cells and placed them on the lower level for some shade.  I have wanted to keep them out in the sun so they can stay outside until frost.  Life would be easier if I had just put them indoors under a grow light.  They would not have used so much water every day.  But I am stubborn, and that would have just been one more out of the way stop on my daily rounds.  So in the sun they stay.

My next round of cuttings will be specifically chosen for longer stems so they will be better at keeping their feet in the water.

Update on an Old Undo Redo

Three years ago, this view with the tall grasses right next to the lawn began to vex me.  So I moved the two tall Overdam grasses to another area, along a fence where they can be as tall and skinny as they want to be.  I had some Karley Rose grasses to the right, but they were not thriving in the wet ground, so the next year I replaced those with Niagara Falls Panicum.

The Niagara Falls grasses are doing well in the soggy soil and their size really anchors this space.

The right plant in the right place. 

Some New Dahlia Blooms

 

Cherokee Beauty

Chloe Janae

Bee's Choice from last year

Belstar Broccoli

 I had every intention of pulling out the Broccoli plants today.

But they were just full of useable broccoli.  And more little ones coming.

There is also one nice cabbage left.  It was a tiny transplant and lagged behind all summer.  It is just a little late to the party.  I'm in the mood for some cole slaw!

I Can't Believe it is September

Early September vegetable garden update.

Sweet Corn was amazing.  I shouldn't have even bothered to fill in the ones that didn't come up.  The later stalks produced very small ears but we had more than enough corn from the early survivors.  The ears were large.  The pollination was wonderful.  The corn was super sweet.  The stalks are hanging out waiting to become autumn decor.

 

I've had more than enough Broccoli.  I am letting it flower.  I just need to get in there and clean it out for the season.

The Sunflowers were beautiful.  The Cantaloupes were a bust.

I still have two zucchini plants producing their heads off.  I've eaten a lot of Zucchini.  I have grilled zucchini for breakfast... time to make some Zucchini cake.

They just keep going and going and going....

Here are some late planted pickling Cucumbers.   They don't look like they will amount to much.

The Blackberries and Black Raspberries are growing spectacularly.  I have formulated a plan for supports for next year involving posts and hog panels.  But that can wait.

There are some to nibble on almost every day.

The Grape Vines look terrific.  I am looking forward to next year.

The Pole Beans are beaning.  They don't seem super productive to me but there are more than plenty beans.

Sweet Potatoes.

The Tomato Jungle is starting to look messy.

Nothing short of pruners and a wheelbarrow will make a difference here.  I'll wait until the ugly can be seen from a distance before I try to restore order.

Bell Peppers:  more than plenty

Hot Peppers:  more than plenty

The fall Pea experiment is interesting.  When I plant in April it takes two months for flowers to form.  These took one month.

We'll see what develops.  Enough for snacking maybe?

The Dahlias are coming into their own.

This is the first really successful year for the 4 in 1 Pear tree.  I've watered it a lot.  This is year six and I have been getting at least a few pears each year since the second year.  We are enjoying a couple of nice, sweet, large Bartlett pears a day now.  There are a few Bosc pears to be picked.  I have never gotten a Seckel or Summercrisp pear from it.  Those branches are still alive but do not thrive like the Bartlett does.  There are dozens of pears this year.  Dozens.  The tree is finally beginning to repay me for pruning, spraying, watering and defending it from the deer 365 days a year.

Ice Tea Dahlia

Bloomquist Pleasing Dahlia

I Am Going to Have to Replace This Shrub

 This Lemony Lace Elderberry is one of my favorite shrubs, but it is not happy here.  It is dying a long slow death. This is the second year that it has begun to languish, in late summer.  I suspect it may be as simple as the fact that the Maple tree is getting bigger and more dense, and when you combine that with the vigor of the grass directly to its east, it just isn't getting enough direct sun, especially later in the summer when the grass takes over.

This is what it looks like in its prime.  This photo was taken in June of last year.

Something that it began to do right after that, was wilt at the growth tips.

I've zoomed in so you can see the darkness of the new tips.  In 2025, it defoliated quite a bit in the late summer.  My other elderberry bushes displayed the same symptoms to a lesser extent.  In fact, a large Black Lace died completely last winter and I yanked that out in early May.  It appears to be some sort of verticillium wilt.  This spring, when it began to do it again, I mixed up some copper spray and sprayed it twice the first week, and then once a week for a few weeks after that.  This tip actually recovered and kept growing, and no other tips were affected.  I also preventatively sprayed the Instant Karma nearby and that one has done very well.  I thought I had it beat, but a few weeks ago it began to look stressed and then drop leaves.  It looks too dry, but this was during a cloudy, rainy period.  It also lost its beautiful bright color which is what makes me think it is not enough sun

Because I really like this shrub, I am going to try to save it.  I have a spot picked out for it and in the spring, while it is still dormant, I will prune it back and transplant it.  Now I am on the lookout for something to replace it.  I would like to keep the bright chartreuse color and there are a few shrubs that might work, but because I need something shorter and more shade tolerant I may go with a Carex or Hakonechloa.  There are several Sedges and Forest Grasses that come in bright gold.

Just another thing for next spring's Do Over List.