2010 Gratitude Challenge: Day 18: Pears Canned and Pear Relish!

It all began on Sunday when our friend at church brought several bushels of pears (the hard cooking kind) that he'd gotten 'in the country' lol~What a sweet friend to bring and offer to everyone in the church family some pears~and WHAT a huge blessing for US that he sent the rest home with me...oh wowsy wow wow! AND then, they were not the "best" looking pears as some had been on the ground, spotted and definitely a golden yellow ripe...what to do with our blessing?  Well, PRESERVE them~eat what we can right now and can the rest...

Off to find the proper instructions:

I felt a good need to review the process and wet my whistle for more kinds of canning in the future~

Almost done when I remembered to take a pic!

My READING LIST:

University of GA Preserving Site  loads of recipes and procedures! Awesome site! 
How to Can Fruit 
Pickles! whoohoo!
No Sugar Jellies and Jams!

We've made pears as fruit in its own juice with Splenda.  Here's our variety~about 1 cup of Splenda to the stewed pears and then hot packed per instructions.  YUM! The Splenda makes a very light syrup and virtually adds no calories~this is sooo delish!

peeled and sliced for both kinds.

Label with what it is and date.

Beautiful canned pears!

We've made pears as relish.  You can see Aunt Edna's recipe in the graphic~we followed it EXCEPT we used Splenda (cup for cup) and some colored (red and yellow) bell peppers along with the green ones~soo pretty!  Also she doesn't talk about grinding them up into a fine to medium coarse grind.  OKay, don't laugh, but hub has this ole timey meat grinder thingy thingy that attaches to the table and you hand crank it~oh wow! NOW I know how the Col Sanders (KY Fried Chicken) made his cole slaw the texture it is~b/c my relish with the perfect consistency and texture! Grind it all up anyway you can~coarse chop in the food processor/blender or hand crank thingy if you have it~but grind it! This is almost like the texture of pickle relish you buy in the store...oh btw~SisterT is gonna make some of that divine cole slaw today!! yum! AND anyway, put all the veggies though it~HINT: do the onions last so you don't cry through the whole process! ;-))  THAT'S not fun~if you do them first b/c onion juice with burn you the whole say! LOL...well, I ended up with lovely lovely relish! And so you know~we got 7 quarts from this recipe.  We added NOTHING to Aunt Edna's recipe so if you are on a low sodium or no sugar~use the Splenda and you are soo good!

Be sure to let it sit for a couple of weeks for all the flavors to really blend~wow! It's wonderful!!

I am so thankful on so many levels regarding my homemade goodness~first that I was given the pears, that I have what I need to can them, and then lastly that I have my mother and her knowledge to do the job (and borrowed her camera, LOL)~whoot!

Thanks for reading my ramblings too~if you will, head over and read my other THANKful friends HERE!