Pre-Cyclone Orchard Harvest means bottling time!!

The threat of an oncoming Cyclone and fruit trees groaning in the orchard meant only one thing. Stripping the remaining fruit from the orchard! 40 kg of pears later, a few baskets of figs and apples were transformed during the next week. My lobster pot did able duty as preserving pan boiling up syrupy mixtures of  Pears in Red Wine, Pears in Earl Gray Tea, Pears in lite syrup, Pear cheese (like Quince Paste), Pear sauce, Pear and Rosemary jelly, Spicy Pear Chutney. Seemed like I was standing over the stove for nearly two weeks!

I'm using the overflow method a my jars are too tall for my big Pot.

 

Pears in Earl Grey Syrup

4ish pounds of pears
3 cups of sugar
4 cups of water
3 Earl Grey tea bags
1 vanilla bean
1 whole cinnamon stick
5 whole cloves

Bring  syrup to boil over medium high heat. Once the syrup has come to a boil, add the tea bags, split and scraped vanilla bean, cinnamon and cloves. Rest at least 3 hours – or even overnight. (I couldn't wait that long). 

Taste the syrup, once its good and flavoursome, start on the pears. Peel, core and halve the pears. Place in bowl with lemon juice to stop going brown. You can take the stems off, but I like to leave them on to grab the pears out of the jar. 

Sterilise jars by washing in soapy water. Rinse. Place Jars on cake rack in oven dish in 180 degree oven for 10 minutes minimum. Place lids and seals in pot of boiling water for 10 mins. 

Overflow method: Pop pears into syrup and cook until soft and cooked through. Cooking time depends of whether pears are whole,halved or quartered, approx 20-30 mins. Test with fork. Place oven dish with hot jars beside stove. Pack boiling pears into hot jars, pour on boiling syrup, (I use a jug to dip into syrup). Remove air bubbles by sliding knife into jar and pressing gently against fruit repeat around jar. Pour on syrup to overflow and pop on hot lid and rings and tighten. Cool. I am storing all my overflow method preserves in the garage fridge this year. Next year I will have buy a really big pot for water bath method and will store in pantry. 

Water Bath Cooking : Cold pack the pears in jars – feel free to add new cloves and cinnamon to each jar if you like. Re-boil the syrup, and pour over your jars. This is a recipe that does require bubbling, though not as much as a fruit butter. Top with hot, wet lids and rings and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Yield approximately 3 quarts.

Sweating for the Paint

Ugly shed is about to get a face lift. How its survived all the demolition around here is a wonder. Ugly shed was the first thing we'd tagged for demo but its stay of execution evolved as its usefulness for dry storage became evident, aided also by its desirability to others more far seeing.

Pip cleared it out last weekend so along with all the buys from the office, his garage is now bristling with desks, chairs, shelving units and assorted sports stuff. Armed with a 10L pail of bright white paint, first I sealed and then rolled an exhausting six coats of white paint on the fake wood paneling. Slaving away on the two hottest days of the summer to transform every surface into a clean slate. Sadly a about a litre of paint found its way into my hair, soles of my shoes and seat of my pants!

Pip, arriving home, stopped dead in his tracks as I emerged from my 'Ugly Shed' saying, "If anyone who knows you saw you in that get up they'd disown you!" Really?, I thought, Doesn't everyone wrap a tee shirt round their head and wear a bikini while painting!

Anyhoo by midday Saturday we had moved all the furniture in, I'd unpacked my library unseen for 10 years and could proudly say I had my own space at last. Be it ever so humble there's no place like home!