Yesterday blew by without a blogging moment. DH and I made a run to town to gather the few things we needed to finish our chicken yard/coop and be prepared for the impending storm. Town was crazy busy. The threat of a bad storm brings out any latent greed tendencies a person may have. The shelves are being emptied of supplies as quickly as stockers can fill them. Katrina is still very fresh in the minds of South Mississippians. Traffic and crowds were so bad we stopped short of finishing our errands, and…wahhhhh I have to go back today pick up a few things.
There are a couple of pear trees on our property and if Gustav proves as ferocious as the bleakest forecaster guesses all the tasty fruit will fall to the ground during the storm…if the tree survives at all. We started picking pears shortly after returning home and peeled, and peeled, and peeled…Do you get the picture? Our pears are what the old-timers call “sand pears”. They are coarse-skinned, and the fruit is more textured than the pears we buy in most produce departments. Picky eaters pass them over when choosing a pear to bite into, but they are great for canning and preserves…so…can, we did.
Last night around 9:45 I pulled the last jar out of its boiling water bath. My back was aching, and my feet were killing talking to me. I couldn’t help but wonder if all the work was worth it, but as each musical ping of jar lids sealing rang in my ears, I became more satisfied with our efforts and certain it was time well spent. We’ll have pears to eat and pears to share with our loved ones. Our paring efforts paid off beautifully…
We’ll start peeling and paring again after a while. Knowing those wonderful pears will hit the ground and return to the earth unenjoyed is too hard to accept with trying to preserve as many as I can can. Can can…isn’t that a dance? A pair paring pears and a dance…that will make the work more pleasant and the pears sweeter. 😀
Until next time…
Eat what you can, and can what you can’t.
apron strings 
That looks so yummy. I’ve never canned before, I’d like to at some point. I’ll be paying on this house for the next 30 years so I guess I have time! 😉
Canning is very satisfying when it’s all said and done and can be enjoyed for months. I hope you do take the plunge and try your hand at it. Start with something simple and follow the guide lines for canning carefully, and you won’t go wrong. If you were near me I’d put you to work helping me…I just popped nine more quarts in my canning pot and have a batch of watermelon rind preserves in the works. I’ve never made them before but decided now was the time to try it out. I love, love, love watermelon and it seems a waste to throw all that rind away every time.