Pears, preserves and more pears

I didn't pick up any pears yesterday or today. It is a relief. The tree has dropped all but one or two. Maybe now, I can catch up.

I dehydrate a batch every day, but that's not enough to keep up. At the peak, I had 2 laundry baskets, 2 coolers and about eight grocery bags full of pears. I've reclaimed one laundry basket and the other is only about 1/3 full. We're getting there. But it has taken a lot of preserving, most of which are not traditional preserves.

If you have fruit trees, or even if you go picking, get carried away and come back with massive amounts of fruit, I recommend getting a crank peeler. It peels and slices the fruit in one motion. From there, if you want rings, cut the peeled, sliced fruit in one straight line, as in the picture. For jams or cobblers, you will need 3 or 4 cuts, especially if you are using fruit that doesn't fall apart in cooking. Pears don't.

I imagine preserves are the most traditional way to keep fruit for later in the year. Sugar is a preservative, and jams are sweet. While they are delicious and make wonderful gifts, I wouldn't make jam out of a tree full of pears, but a few jars are nice.

I use the same basics for any fruit preserves, which is half as much sugar as fruit. I go by volume, so 6 cups of fruit need three cups of sugar.

Then change the flavorings to go with the fruit. This is the step where you can play. Strawberries may get only a touch of lemon juice. Peaches go nicely with rosewater. I've used Zinfandel with pears, which gave it a pretty color, but my favorite pear combination is whole cardamon and fresh ginger. I chop a little fresh ginger into the pot with the pears, and break a few pods of cardamon into it, maybe one pod per pint of fruit.

Peel and core any fruits that need it.

Cut the whole fruits into pieces that would be a reasonable size when spread on a piece of toast. Put the fruit and sugar into a stainless steel pot, bring to a boil and simmer. It usually takes about an hour to cook down. Hot, it will seem more like a thin syrup than jam, but it thickens as it cools.

You should come out with about 2/3 of your original volume. If you are using my sugar proportions, this means you come out with the same amount of preserves as your original fruit, assuming you packed the fruit into the measuring cup. If you come out with a little less, that's fine too. Not all fruit contains the same amount of water.

If you cook out too much water, the jam will solidify in the fridge. If this happens, don't throw it out. Just get it out of the jar and back into a pan. Add water, bring to a boil, and don't cook all that water back out. Clean the jar and go through the sealing process again.

You can get much more detailed instructions for canning on sites dedicated to subject, but here's the quick explanation. Use canning jars, the kinds where the lids seal with rings. If you use anything else, like and old pickle jar, you'll need to refrigerate your preserves.

Clean the jar, then drop it and the lid in boiling water.

Also boil whatever you are using to get the preserves out of the pot and into the jar. I use a ladle.

Use tongs to get your jars out of the water.

Fill them with preserves to 1/2" from the top.

Put the lid on and seal tightly. Everything will be hot, so use a dish towel or pot holder to handle this step.

When all are sealed, put the jars back in the boiling water. For things that aren't as sugary as preserves, you need to leave them for 10 minutes. It's probably not necessary with preserves, but I do it anyway, just to be sure.

When I end up with an odd amount left, I let it cool and put it in a storage container and refrigerate for immediate use.