Second verse same as the first

Only this time with pears.

We harvested about 10 gallons of pears from our Bartlett tree. The Anjou tree didnt do nearly as well...we had some to eat fresh, but not to preserve. Maybe next year will be better for them. Or us.

Pears can be a little tricky. It is a little known fact that pears are actually supposed to be harvested before they ripen. No ripening on the tree is what the research says. You want to pick them when they are mature, but not ripe...and that can be a very tricky thing. And once they are mature and you pick them, depending on the variety, they are then supposed to rest in a very cool place for anywhere from a couple days to appx 30 days. This can prove to be difficult to accomplish when you live in the desert.

At any rate, after a good scrubbin in the sink...

It was time to get to work. First order of business was pearsauce. Upon making the sauce tho, I realized that it just had a lot more moisture in it then when I made the applesauce. It was going to take forever to cook down. And I didnt want pear butter...altho, that does sound tasty.

To remedy the moisture issue, I decided to grab the jelly bag and pour the cooked and already strained pears through that.

It worked like a dream. The sauce turned out very nice and thick.

And it was a win win for me. Straining the pears for a second time left me with a very nice version of pear juice.

A little over 3 quarts of it actually.

Enough for 2 batches of pear jelly. Which gave me 18 jars.

And, of course, not to be forgotten are the pear crisps. Oh my goodness...they are heavenly.

I tell you what...these are not gonna make it till winter. As much as I would love to eat a nice, warm pear crisp this winter....yeah, Im thinking Ill be doing good to have any left by Thanksgiving.

And G was all business when he was capping these off.

He got really, really fast by the time we were all done.

And did I happen to mention that I have about 8 more wagon loads just like this that are waiting to be processed??? Anyone wanna come help me puree some pumpkins? I think I may have been a little over zealous in my pumpkin planting!

apples galore

Its apple season here on the farm.

And theres nothing like being able to enjoy a fresh apple...or two...


After that first bite.

He kinda checks everything over and thinks about things a bit.

And just goes right back to enjoying it.

The first harvest we had was of our red apples. We were told by the previous owner that they are red delicious...but I just dont know for certain. The color wasnt spot on to me. But, none the less, they sure did taste good.

And as you can tell by the small dent in the apple harvest...we still had a ways to go to use them all up.

So, we relied on the trusty stand by.


Applesauce.

And my new favorite, (thanks to Penny) fruit crisps in a jar.


They are so yummy!

And now that the red(ish) apples are all processed...its time to take on the green ones. 4 trees worth of granny smiths.