We have our own pear trees, but because of the drought, the fruit was no good this year, but our neighbors across the street had good pears, and told us we could have them all! =)
It is really nice having nice neighbors.
(Sometimes I think that they are too nice for us!)
This type of pear "sand pear"
(found in yards & hedgerows) are always organic. They are very hardy, and resistant to pests, etc....
From our guesstimation, we picked & processed at least a couple hundred pounds of pears.
To make anything with these pears
(even just eating) they must be peeled first.
(the peel is indigestible)
Sometime, you even find little faces looking out at you!
Recipe #1.
Dad bought Mom one of those lovely dehydrators this summer, and we dried more than 10 quarts jars
packed full.
(I know that it was more, because we ate a lot, and gave some away) ...our kitchen is sticky now...
You must wash & then sterilize your jars anytime you are going to can....
...in you go!
(you wash and boil the lids & rings too, in another pot)
Recipe #2.
We decided to try our hand at Pear Marmalade. Organic oranges & orange peels...
...processed till smooth.
Add some drained crushed pineapple...
...to your finely chopped pears, sugar, lemon, and any other ingredients that the recipe called for...
...then you boil/simmer it...
...till it gets thick from the natural pectin in the fruit...
..and it gets all nice and carmely brown, and even thicker...
...and you add your thinly sliced Maraschino cherries. (we only had half the amount called for, but we think that what we had was plenty! Then we canned it all! =) ...our kitchen is even stickier now...
Recipe #3.
We made
Pear Chutney for the first time too.
Freshly canned chutney~ ready to come out...
...our kitchen is really sticky now...
Recipe #4.
Pickled Spiced Pears
First you infuse your vinegar& sugar with your spices
(all tied up in your little spice bag), then you cook the pears in the vinegar syrup in batches. Then you let every thing sit together at room tempature, overnight, to pickle properly.
Next day, you heat your jars & lids, remove the pears & spices, and bring the vinegar syrup to a boil.
Pack the pears into hot jars...
...add boiling syrup, wipe the tops, put on the lids, and can them!
...our kitchen is SO sticky now, I am glad that the pears are all gone till next year...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I honestly don't want to see or eat another pear for a few months! =}
We are getting between 5-8 eggs every morning.
The brown egg is a regular sized chicken egg (from a friend)...you can see that it is pretty close in size to the duck-pullet eggs on the left of the photo. The large egg on top, is actually about full size for a duck egg! So, one of our girls is laying full size eggs already! =)
Pleas, decided that fresh eggs are the way to go...he collects the eggs, brings them in cleans 2 and cooks them for breakfast (ducks lay their eggs very early in the morning). He does not want to eat "old" eggs again! (In order to take this photo with so many eggs in it, I persuaded him to eat chicken eggs for just one morning...he did, and said "YUCK"! We've been buying fresh chicken eggs from friends, but they just don't compare! 
