Got Pears? Canning Tips

Don't those look good? Yep, in spite of the spaghetti sauce disaster we're still canning like crazy around here. Here are some tips for canning pears in case you've got a few extra on your hands like we do...

A few things to consider are:

• Always can ripe, mature fruit. If they taste bad fresh, they won't taste any better canned - in fact probably a lot worse.
• An average of 17-1/2 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 11 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 50 pounds and yields 16 to 25 quarts—an average of 2-1/2 pounds per quart.

Here's how I can pears. You can find the source here:

Pears - halved

Procedure: Wash and peal pears. Cut lengthwise in halves and remove core. To prevent discoloration, keep pears in an ascorbic acid solution (I use a dissolved 500 mg vitamin C tablet per gallon of water). Prepare fruit syrup. For a quart load I use 3-4 Cups of sugar to 8 cups of water. Or pack pears in water, apple juice, or white grape juice. They are not very good in water because the sugar in the pears leaks out into the water so you are left with not very sweet pears.

Hot pack Method (Raw packs make poor quality pears): In a large saucepan place drained fruit in syrup, water, or juice and bring to boil. Boil for about 5 minutes. Fill jars with hot fruit and cooking liquid, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Place halves in layers, cut side down. Adjust lids and process according to times below (based on your current elevation).

Processing Times:
Hot Pints
20 min (0-1,000 ft) 25 min (1,001-3,000 ft)
30 min (3,001-6,000 ft) 35 min (Above 6,000 ft)
Hot Quarts
25 min (0-1,000 ft) 30 min (1,001-3,000 ft)
35 min (3,001-6,000 ft) 40 min (Above 6,000 ft)

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When Canning Just Isn't Worth it: The Spaghetti Sauce Disaster

So as I mentioned in the previous post, our garden is producing like crazy. Of course it happens all at once so it can be a very stressful time of year. This year we've had a bumper crop of tomatoes. Within 5 days we picked 60 lbs of them! Well normally I would just can them as crushed tomatoes because it's fast, easy and versatile. I can do whatever I want with them later. Well this year I decided to be bold and brave and make the tomatoes into tomato sauce before I canned it. I spent several hours processing the tomatoes into the sauce. The first batch I processed the slow way and ended up with about twice the work. All in all I spent about 3 hours making the sauce and then I let it simmer for about 7 or 8 hours. It smelled good and I was excited. Because my recipe had peppers and onions in it, I had to pressure can it. It was too late that day so I decided just to do it in the morning.

The next day I pressure canned my tomato sauce into 9 pint sized jars and then let them cool off. Only 4 or so of them sealed. Frustrated, I put the unsealed jars back in the refrigerator and waited until I had more time to reprocess them. Well the next day I processed them again and this time only 3 out of 5 sealed. More frustration. The next day I made another batch of tomato sauce - this time the quick way only took me about an hour and half and 7 or 8 hours to simmer. I was looking at the recipe and realized that all of my other jars I had pressured at 10 lbs. pressure and I was supposed to pressure them at 15. Aaah! Oh well, I figured I could just re-pressure can them all the next day with my new sauce, this time using quart jars and they'd all fit in the canner at once.

So the next day I started to do just that. But for some reason my pressure canner wouldn't seal right. I was losing steam out the lid and it just wasn't building up the pressure. I figured I'd better open the lid to add more water and when I did, I noticed that one of the lids had popped off the jar (that's never happened before!) so I put it back on and without thinking I went and grabbed some more water to replace what had steamed off - but I made a mistake and grabbed cold water! Ugh! Two of my jars cracked and spilled spaghetti sauce all over the canner. At this point I was really frustrated. I took out all the uncracked jars. Dumped the rest of the stuff in the garbage and put everything away for another day.

The next day I pulled out my canner again and tested it without jars to see if I could get it up to pressure. No luck so I decided to take it in to a fix-it place. They tested the seal on it and said it worked fine, you just had to jiggle it really good to get it to seal. Great...I took it home and gave it a try. Sure enough I finally got it up to pressure when it was empty. Then I when through the whole canning process again and placed my remaining 6 remaining quart jars in the canner and eventually got it up to pressure (after much coaxing). I processed them at the correct pressure this time, took them out and yep, that's right only 4 quarts sealed. I put the remaining sauce in the fridge and gave up. I figured we'd eat them for dinner some night.

Then this afternoon I heard a cry in the kitchen after my six-year-old son had opened the fridge to get out his afternoon snack. When I saw the floor I just laughed hysterically - that's all I could do at this point. In fact, I was actually a little relieved to be quite honest. So....rest in peace, dear spaghetti sauce. I got less than a 50% yield off my 60 lbs. of tomatoes and I don't think I'll be canning spaghetti sauce again any time soon...I figure with time, energy and broken jars, those 4 quarts are probably worth about $100 a piece.

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Can you guess what we've been doing this week?

The garden is producing like crazy! What a great blessing, but it also makes for a busy time of year. So far I've canned 28 quarts of applesauce, 14 pints of salsa and 28 quarts of crushed tomatoes and tons more to come. I'm hoping this year to post my salsa and pears canning tips to add to the list. Happy Harvest to you all!!

Canning Tips & Recipes:
Canning Introduction
Canning: Applesauce 
Canning: Dry Beans
Canning: Peaches
Canning: Tomatoes

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Red Quinoa Vegetable Lasagna

I have to tell you - I have been looking for a recipe like this for a long, long time! I finally created it myself! :) We love vegetable lasagnas but we don't usually write down the recipes and sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't. Well this one was amazing, even if I do say so myself! :) The nice thing about it is that it's very versatile and you can use whatever veggies you have in season (it is perfect for this time of year with all the fresh veggies around). I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! :)
Red Quinoa Vegetable Lasagna
2 C. spaghetti sauce
4 small tomatoes cut into eighths
1 C. chopped vegetables (squash, corn, turnips, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, etc)
4 sprigs fresh thyme, or ½ tsp. dried
1 C. uncooked red quinoa, cooked
1 16-oz. carton cottage cheese
1-2 tsp. Italian seasoning, or to taste (penzy’s tuscan sunset is wonderful)
2 C. Shredded Jack or Mozzarella cheese
¼ C. Shredded Parmesan cheese
¼ -1/2 C. water, optional
14 lasagna noodles, cooked till they barely bend but are still very hard (do not overcook!)

In a medium saucepan, add spaghetti sauce, chopped tomatoes, vegetables, and thyme. Simmer on medium-high heat until vegetables are tender. In a bowl, mix cooked quinoa with Italian seasoning and cottage cheese. When sauce is done, combine the sauce with the quinoa mixture. If sauce is too thick, add ¼ C. to ½ C. water until you reach a runny consistency (not necessary if tomatoes are really juicy).

In a 9 x 13” pan, add a little sauce on the bottom. Layer four lasagna noodles, sauce, and jack or mozzarella cheese. Do two more similar layers using three lasagna noodles. Use the remaining four lasagna noodles for the top layer, adding the sauce and cheese. Sprinkle the shredded parmesan cheese on the very top. Cover with tin foil. Put in oven and turn on to 350 F (no need to preheat). Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove foil and broil until the cheese on top is bubbly and brown. Serve warm with corn on the cob and fresh bread.

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