Pear Honey Jam

My pear tree is a prolific producer but the pears never seem to ripen and then they fall off the tree half decayed. This summer I finally learned how to get them to ripen properly. My wonderful friend Lynne let me spend one morning at her house learning canning procedures and we made delicious Pear Honey Jam.

It was so much fun that I can't wait to do it again.

 This began some weeks ago when I picked a basket of very hard, unripened pears, chilled them for almost 2 weeks then set them out to finish ripening. I was astonished to see how sweet and juicy they became. I felt so wasteful for leaving them on the ground for the past 20 years.

This is what happens when you leave them...

I peeled and chopped the pears to take to Lynne's house to make our jam. I soaked the pears in ginger ale for about 5 minutes to keep them from turning brown and to give them a slight ginger taste. Then I filled freezer bags and squeezed out most of the air.

Then I headed to Lynne's where she had things ready and waiting.

The jars were washed by hand then sterilized in this boiler.

The lids were put in this holder and sterilized as well.

They remained in their hot bath until we needed them. 

This is eight cups of pears that had been slightly chopped in her food processor.

Into the pot along with 2 cups of crushed pineapple with the juice.

 Lynne is adding eight cups of sugar.

Notify the news! Sharon is cooking!

We stirred it the whole time. The recipe didn't give a time so we just went in ten minute intervals. 
It took almost an hour to get from this...

 to this. Ready to put in the jars!

We used a few test methods to see if it was ready, including placing a dollop on a cold plate to see if it held its shape. Also the spoon test. The hot sterilized jars were carefully moved to the counter, ready to be filled.

Lynne filled the jars.

For someone who does not like to cook, I found this all very exciting!

Taa Daa! We made 10 jars and had a half left over.

Everything is still boiling hot at this stage. Lynne used a tool with a magnet on the end to place the lids on each jar, making sure the rims were clean to get a good seal.  Then the rings were screwed on, loosely at first, then tightened before going into the water bath.

If I remember correctly, they boiled for ten minutes then were taken off the heat for five minutes before being taken out of the water. Then we waited to hear them "pop" as they vacuumed down their seal. While we waited, we sampled the jam in the un-canned half-full jar.

Yummy!

I left the mess for Lynne to clean up, and took home the first two jars that sealed early. My goal was to pick the rest of the pears that could be reached.

 I could not actually get to the top by myself but I was able to get almost there!

I used the new snake grabber that Rod recently bought and was able to reach the "good" pears. The ones much higher in the tree were huge.

Now I understand the meaning of "low hanging fruit." The ones I started with were tiny compared to this.

With bag over my shoulder and snake grabber in hand, I picked away!

 Looking up.

Looking down.

I had to keep reminding myself that I was on a ladder. It felt much higher than the photo looks. There were red wasps all in the tree with me, feeding on the juice from the pears. We coexisted peacefully. 
There were also yellow ladybugs who believed they were camouflaged.

Thank you Mother Nature!!

Second harvest is now ready for a chill in the fridge.

 In the window to show their color. The Pear Honey Jam is very sweet. 
I understand the name now.

Pretty enough to eat!

And good news, all the jars sealed properly!

Many thanks to Lynne. Ready for round 2!!