I’m not sure me attacking 1000 plus pears as a canning novice was the best decision, but attack I did.
Jars and jars of Jam (which I am scared to test for fear it may be the consistency of rubber), Preserves, Pear-I-don’t-know-what-to-
Take-away:
Seckel Pears are delicious. Perfectly sweet. They may, however, be too sweet for jam/preserves.
Seckel Pears ripen quickly. No 5-7 day window there.
When making jam/preserves, you can’t wing it. You can’t lessen the sugar. You can’t substitute for Stevia. You can’t alter the recipe at all. If your ratio of pectin (natural or added) and acid and sugar is off, your jam won’t set. Or, it could go the other way and turn into a rubber like consistency.
Jams/Jellies/Preserves are best when made in smaller batches. (My pot-to-feed-an-army was not conducive to successful jamming.)
One stove isn’t enough when canning 1000 plus pears. You need two. One for cooking jams and such. The other for canning two canners at a time. (I opted not to try the pear butter this year because of the cooking time.)
I think, once I recover, I’ll buy some fruit in “small” batches and try making jam without the time constraints…
Hopefully when I do get up the guts to try some of my canning experiments from 2014, they will be edible and even tasty!
Next year, however, I’m setting up shop and selling those suckers the minute they come off the tree… Smaller quantities…
