Breeze blows leaves of a musty-colored yellow

Ok, so leaves haven't exactly started falling (although I have seen some starting to change color this week), but we're definitely getting into the fall mindset around here . True, the weather has changed a bit (it's getting cooler at night and, while lovely, sunny, and warm during the day, it doesn't have the same baking heat we had last month), but I think our transition has more to do with our activities over the past couple of weeks. 

Tres harvested the sweet potatoes, potatoes, and squash from the garden and brought them up to the shop to cure and store. We've been dipping into them already and they're pretty great. Silas is a big fan of the sweet potatoes and has enjoyed all of the squash we've tried so far. Guess he's a fall boy.

A couple weekends ago, we hit up the farmer's market and came home with about 40 pounds of Bartlett pears. We haven't preserved any since we were in Seattle (which is over 2 years ago now - wowee) and I was really hankering for some. As you can see below, they were quite green and hard when we first purchased them. I was interested to learn that pears are one of the few fruits that should be allowed to ripen after they have been picked, as those that ripen on the tree become mealy and mushy. Who knew?

I started off trying out a recipe for preserves that seemed similar to some Tres longingly remembers from his childhood. That involved peeling and slicing the pears, then letting them sit overnight in some sugar, before cooking and canning the preserves the next day. I used this recipe (good name for a blog, huh - I swear that's not why Tres chose that recipe : ) ) and what I tasted was pretty darn nice. It's quite, quite sweet, so I suspect a little dab will do you, but it has a lovely intense pear flavor.

Next up was pear butter, my impetus for buying the pears in the first place. Tres made amazingly delicious pear butter the last year we lived in Seattle and I hoped to make something similar. So, more peeling and coring, then pureeing (I used the mixer's meat grinder attachment, just like when we make applesauce), and heating in the crock pot with spices overnight. It was this day that the prep started to weigh on me. Forty pounds hadn't sounded like that much when I started, but the vegetable peeler and I aren't really friends (you'd think we'd have come up with something easier/more efficient in this modern day and age) and it takes FOREVER. Despite my enthusiastic helper (see below) it was a slow, messy day. I was pretty happy with the result, when all was said and done, although I'm not it measures up to my memory of Tres's . . . we'll see how I feel with some distance from the process.

Now that I was really ready to be done with pears, I still had about 10 pounds left. I ground them up (after peeling them of course - ugh), added some spices, heated the puree, and canned them. I think they should go over big with Silas this winter. So, that's my saga. Pears are delicious and, ultimately, I'm glad I got them, but man, I wish there were a shortcut for dealing with them!

L to R: butter, preserves, and sauce (the lighting
is poor, but you get the general idea)

Just think, in a couple more weeks it will be time for applesauce (at least we have a corer/peeler for that)!