Home Food Preservation

Recently, I got some crazy hairbrained idea to purchase 88 pounds of pears directly from the grower.  Sounds really crazy right.  Well, it was, but it was also one of the greatest things I've done for my family, and here's why.

It sounds like purchasing all those pears wouldn't really matter to my family, but it has more to do with the way I feed my family.  I purchased 88 pounds of pears strictly for the purpose of canning them at home, so we could have them to eat all winter, instead of purchasing the canned ones from the store.  It turns out that with the help of my mom and my oldest daughter, we managed to bottle 47 jars of pears.  That's a lot.

You see, for those of you out there that are like me, I don't like to give my kids a whole bunch of extra sugar, but when you run out of fresh fruit and your next shopping day isn't for another 3 or 4 days and the budget is tight, it's nice to be able to pull a can of fruit out of the pantry to balance out your meal.  But, along with a can of fruit from the store comes things that are not so great, like high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives and extra sodium (sodium, can you believe it?) and since I didn't make it myself, I don't even know what else.

So this year, I decided pears would be a good jumping off point.  I didn't want to load myself up too much my first year, but I'm thinking about preserving apples (homemade spiced chunky applesauce anyone?) and pears, and maybe doing some vegetables next year and possibly also some jam, now that I know how to do this kind of stuff and all.

I don't have some secret special recipe (except to say that I will share my applesauce recipe at a later date), but I did use the instructions in my Ball Blue Book (which came with my water bath canner btw).  It has all sorts of recipes for canning and freezing all sorts of different kinds of produce.  Oh, but be careful with the syrup for fruit.  You can cut the sugar in the light syrup down by at least half, if not more, and be just fine.  If you don't, you might find your syrup way too sugary.

I'm telling you, everyone should try this if they've got the time.  I am left with a sense of pride in myself for putting up my own fruit, the way all our ancestors used to do, and I'm feeling more self-sufficient as well.  Thirdly, I know my family will eat some seriously yummy canned fruit this winter (way better than the stuff from the store). 

My pears...yum-O!

I also know that bottling my own fruit is helping to protect the environment.  I can reuse my glass jars and my metal rings each year, and the only thing I need to purchase again are the seals (which are recyclable) and the fruit, of course.  But, think of all the packaging material I've saved, and the cost of trucking the fruit, cans and lables to the factory, and then trucking the fruit in the cans with the labels on them from the factory to my local store.  In the long run, self-suffiency is Eco-Friendly, health smart, and economically more sustainable for my family.

Oh, and one more thing.  The best store I've found around here for all the supplies I needed this first year was Wilco.  They have a huge display this time of year for all your canning and freezing needs.  I would imagine that most larger farm and ranch suppliers would carry similar products this time of year, due to the fact that many farmers and ranchers do this kind of stuff too, so if you don't have a Wilco near you, check out your nearest Farm and Ranch supply store, or head to the internet for your supplies.

Good luck!