Canning Pears

Wow, we're already a week into September; this year is going by quickly!

Pears are ripening. We picked all the fruit off Jake's tree last weekend, placing it between layers of newspaper, filling this washtub. They were still kind of green, but are turning yellow quickly.

The instructions I found for canning pears talked about using ascorbic acid to keep discoloration to a minimum and "hot packing" the jars (hot pears cooked for a few minutes in hot water) followed by filling the jars with a hot syrup. This seems complicated to me. I mean, you've got hot pears in a liquid that you put into a jar. Where is there room for hot syrup I ask? And, is ascorbic acid really necessary??

I called my mom to ask how to can pears. She said to put the peeled, cut up fruit in a bowl of water to deter browning and then cold pack the hot jars (draining the water off), then filling up with syrup. Yes! I knew it could be simpler!

Here is a canner full of jars, happily boiling away...

After two canner loads, I have 14 quarts of pears.  Not bad for an afternoon's work!

This year I discovered "Tattler" lids for the first time... they are plastic, reusable, flats that seal with a removable rubber ring, but you use a regular jar ring while processing and they come in regular and wide-mouth sizes.

Here is link to them on the Lehman's website Reusable Canning Jar Lids