Skip to main content

Pear Butter

This year I have canned and harvested more food than I have in my whole entire life.  Through the many changes and difficulties that I have faced over the past year, I find great comfort in growing food, getting my hands and feet dirty in the garden, and being able to pick the goods that have grown.  I'm happy to say that I have an abundance of salsa, corn, green beans, tomatoes, peach preserves, pickles, and banana peppers.  


I want to continue this lifestyle, of growing my own food and putting it away for later.  I love knowing where my food is coming from and what is being put into it.  I have accepted a lot of food this summer too, and I gladly receive it, knowing that I can try to learn and make something new.  A lady that I work with gave me two boxes of pears.  Not ever being much of a pear lover in the past, I didn't really know what to do with them.  I did a little bit of research while they ripened up for the week and found a quick and easy way to preserve them in a way that I knew I would enjoy...pear butter.  


Pear Butter
Yields 5-7 pints

Ingredients

35-40 pears
3 cups of orange juice
2 1/2 cups of sugar
2 tsp of cinnamon
2 tsp of all spice or pumpkin spice

How to:

Sterilize jars and lids 
Peal, quarter and core pears, soaking in water with lemon juice


Drain pears and place in crock pot, cooking on low for 10-12 hours
After pears are cooked, drain off liquid and mix them until smooth.  I use my kitchen-aid mixer


Pour orange juice, sugar, spices, and pears into a large sauce pot, stirring until all ingredients are blended.  
Cook on medium/low heat for one hour, stirring occasionally.  


Heat jars and lids
Ladle pear butter into hot jars.  Wipe rim and place lid and ring on jar.
Once all jars are filled, place in a water bath canner, covering jars with at least one inch of water


Boil in canner for 10 minutes and remove 
Once jars are sealed, label and set aside until cool.  


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Old Paths

Ok.  So picture the Judd's singing, "Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days."  Let that tune stick in your mind as you read the following paragraphs.  I love the old ways of life that have mysteriously found me.  I was raised in the city limits of Scottsville, Kentucky.  I loved looking at the "moo cows" that just so happened to be in our backyard, separated by a fence, thanks to a neighbor who owned just enough land to accommodate them.  They were friendly for the most part, but I always longed for one of them to let me feed it from my bare hands.  I got close a few times, but their skiddish demeanor left them just out of reach.  My small city life as a child was good, safe, and reliable.  My parents worked their tails off, ensuring that bills were paid and we had food on the table.  We bought new tennis shoes, once a year at the beginning of school.  We were never allowed to wear them out of the house until that first day of...
Post a Comment
Read more

One Bad Day

I thought I would take a minute to help explain a part of the homesteading life that seems to throw people off. Let me first say that we hate killing our animals. But ultimately, there comes a day when we prep and plan to do just that. The animals we have on our property have a purpose. The dogs help alert if there are predators after our critters. The chickens produce eggs and meat for the freezer. We also raise rabbits. We have a few that we keep for breeding purposes but their offspring will eventually be harvested. On “killing day” our anxiety is usually high, hoping that everything dies as humanely as possible. Again, we don’t enjoy killing these animals that we have raised since birth. At the same time, we’re not just raising pets. We are raising animals that will help sustain us. All of this was new to me until a couple of years ago. I didn’t know how I would handle the slaughtering of our livestock. But I knew that if I wanted to live a life of self-reliance, I would have...
Post a Comment
Read more

What's Your Beans?

This year, Andrew and I took on a huge endeavor of tripling our garden compared to last summer.  We've had an abundance of cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers.  However, our beans were lacking sufficiently to the point that I was about to purchase fresh green beans elsewhere.  I mean, I only had four jars left in my cupboards from last year's harvest.  I needed my beans!  I would look at posts on Facebook of friend's abundant bean harvest, and I'll be honest, I felt completely defeated.  We purposely planted two huge rows to ensure that we would have beans coming out of our ears.  And here we were, at the end of July, with no beans.  About a week ago we were in the garden, picking tomatoes, deciding if it was time to rip up some of our crops that were on their way out, and plotting on other crop endeavors.  Andrew decided to take a look at the beans, and low and behold we had beans.  Our bean bushes were not even worthy to be ca...
1 comment
Read more