East Asian Joro Spiders--and Spiny Orb Weavers

Keeping with the spider theme, I noticed a new one a couple of weeks ago near the garage.  The largest spiders I typically see are the argiopes.  This is the time of year when they're big.  Down in south Georgia there are banana spiders, which are about the same size or larger.

Another species that has only been in Georgia a few years is the East Asian Joro.  I noticed my specimen by chance; give its size, it has been around a while but has gone unnoticed.  it has a web running between a crepe myrtle and the garage.  This web has both a male and female in it, or at least it did at the time I took the pictures.  There's no indication they have an adverse impact on native spiders, so I'm going to leave this one alone.

Subsequent to this discovery, I mowed for the first time in about three weeks--it has been dry here--and I saw that I don't have one pair; I have about a dozen.  None of them had webs up the last time I mowed, but they are out now in force.

Their web is very large, and despite the appearance above, it does have some symmetric properties.  The silk also has a distinctly golden color that doesn't really come out in any of these pictures.

Another species I have a lot of this year is spiny orb weavers.  I always see a few, but this year they're everywhere.  Less ubiquitous this year are the barn spiders; they're another species that hangs huge webs this time of the year (that I usually blunder into in the dark).  But I don't see a lot of them.  I hope the Joros haven't eaten them.

Lynx Spiders on the Jerusalem Artichokes

I've mentioned before that I have some Jerusalem artichokes I'm trying out.  Because of dire posts from other bloggers like this one, I have been growing them in pots.  I actually haven't actually gotten around to eating any yet.

This year I had a few come up in one pot--another variety whose name I forget didn't thrive and never came back--and I planted another one.  I got everything from Oikos, which seems to have the best selection I've found anywhere.

I think what I have growing are Blue Eye and Gute Gelbe, but I'm not sure.  I went for tubers that were relatively smooth and without branches, figuring these would be easy to clean.  The blogger above indicated that some say you should leave some of the dirt attached to reduce flatulence, but ... no.

I've got a decent--maybe too decent--crop this year.  The survivors did well, and so did the new ones.  I didn't get them into the pot quickly enough, so there was some mold in the bag when I opened them.  I didn't know if they'd survive at all, but they did.  I'm definitely wary of putting them in the ground with no boundaries; I can believe that they'd rapidly expand their territory.

A few things I've noticed this year:  aphids adore them.  Both varieties have been heavily-hit by aphids.  The new type is showing no signs of blooming, but the survivor variety did form bulbs--most of which were eaten by something before opening.  One bloom is open now.  Both types have resident green lynx spiders.  They seem to be doing a decent job on the aphids, or maybe the aphids are just disappearing due to other factors.

The spiders fattened themselves on bugs for a while, then one of them made an egg sac.  It was amazing to me how much her abdomen shrank.  She currently seems to be just guarding the eggs.  The one on the blooming plant probably went somewhere else to lay eggs, and vanished about the same time.

This fall I plan to harvest the tubers, then decide where to take things next.

Canning Pears, 2018

The last time I got a bunch of pears I canned some.  As I noted at the time, it went okay.  I followed pretty much the same procedure this time, except that--inspired by Jill Winger at the Prairie Homestead--I didn't peel the pears. It still took about two minutes per pear, however. I guess I've lost whatever speed-processing talents I developed last time around.

One thing I noticed (again) was that some of them had grainy/hard inclusions in them.  When I found them I tried to remove them, but some no doubt are still embedded in the now-processed pears.  Also, I got two batches of pears this time around from Jaemor.  The second bag was much riper on average than the first; some of them were even pretty good for fresh eating (I sampled a couple of quarters while cutting).  Kieffers.  Amazing.  Last  time around I kept some in the refrigerator for a long time, trying to get them to soften and sweeten up.  It didn't go well.  Maybe when my own trees get to the point of producing pears I'll leave some and see if they end up getting softer/sweeter before falling.  The contrast can be seen in the shot below of the quartered slices; some are green while others are pretty yellow.

As I noted back when I first started working with pears, this is the time of year when the Kieffers are dropping all over north Georgia.  It has been going on for a few weeks, but the trees I drive by frequently still have a lot of ripe ones on them.  Maybe tree-ripened palatability is a possibility...

As before, I used a light syrup mix of 1 cup sugar to 3 cups water.  And as before / as always, I failed to get as many pears into each jar as the NCHFP says I should (and as Jill did). I started off with about 18 pounds and cut out about 5 1/2 pounds' worth of bad spots and cores...so I only got about 1.3 pounds of pears in each quart (when counting the net weight, but usually I use the gross [pre-cut] in the figures I cite here, and that's what the NCHFP uses when giving quantities per quart or pint as a general rule).  On top of this I needed almost 15 cups of water and 5 cups of sugar. I raw-packed them because the ones I did last time turned out fine.  There were some quarters left over; I snacked on some but they weren't enough to make a pint, so didn't can a pint jar on top of the 10 quarts.

I heard some booms in the canner during the first load (my canner holds eight quarts, so I had to do two heat cycles).  I wondered if jars were breaking.  As it turned out, I just had some lids get creased.  This happens sometimes and it indicates the bands were put on too tight.  I mentioned last year that I initially (and to some degree still) have trouble getting the right amount of tension on the bands.  Too loose and syrup boils out of the jars, causing a mess and leaving empty space behind; too tight and the lids buckle.  I have never (as far as I can remember) had a bent lid fail to seal, however.  It all works out in the end.

The top picture shows the lids pre-seal, right after coming out of the canner.  There were three lids that buckled in the first batch, so I was unusually heavy-handed when tightening.  I still got a little syrup overflow.  And yes, the jar at the top right does have a reused lid; I noted previously that I periodically reuse lids to test their ability to seal.  So far they have performed pretty well.  It might be good to know sometime.

The next picture shows the same lids (albeit from a different angle) after they have sealed.  And below is a photo from the side post-processing; the pear slices are pretty densely-stacked and still fill the jars.  I don't know how I could get any more in them. Side note:  some of the jars in the photo below are amber.  In recent years, Ball has released a number of color variations--light blue, green, and purple--as commemoratives (there's a purple one at the back right).  Now it appears light blue and amber are going to be available going forward.  Their price is pretty steep compared to the clear glass versions, almost three times as much, but they are nice(r) and help limit light exposure for the contents.

Pear Preserves, 2018

As I have previously noted, the pear crop failed in north Georgia last year due to a late frost.  So this is my first opportunity to do anything with pears since 2016.  I have two Kieffer trees that are too young to bear, but a nearby farmers' market, Jaemor, sells them.

Back in 2016, I made preserves. I repeated the process this time around and noted again that the eight cups of pear bits didn't break down much when mashed with the potato masher, so I was essentially heating pear dices with very little liquid in them.  Per instructions from the BBB and SureJell site, I added the lemon juice and pectin initially, as well.  It had been long enough since the last time that I had forgotten this is how it was before, as well, and I put in another four tablespoons or so of lemon juice.  More acid never hurts, though it might inhibit the set. When the pot boiled I dumped in the sugar--all 10 cups' worth--and the mixture eventually turned sort of syrupy.

I cut up about 8.5-9 cups of pears and got 6.5 pints.  I happened to have a half pint jelly jar from someone who gave me some jam once, so I went ahead and used that in addition to six pint jars.  Normally I don't bother with half pint jars; they're too small.  Everything turned out well.

Pear preserves are nice, but they don't have as strong of a fruit flavor as peach preserves or (maybe) even as much as blueberry preserves.  But they're a worthy addition to the canning mix.  Over the two years since I made them last time, I've used up all but two of the pints I did back then.  That says something.

Pears, 2018

A couple of years ago I got some Kieffer pears to try different preserving methods with.  I canned them, made preserves, and dehydrated some.  Last year there was no pear crop because of a late-March frost, which came after pears had bloomed but before apples started opening.  So this is the first crack I've had at them since that first time.

I got about 20 pounds and put half into the dehydrator.  This time I didn't peel any of them.  I quartered them, cutting out the core and seeds as previously; I only needed to use the melon baller on some.  Usually, once they are quartered, cutting the in- or less-edible portions out is pretty easy.

Next they went into the dehydrator for about 3 days at 135, emerging with dark brown skins and--as I recall from last time--a few sharp tips from the tops of the quarters.  They have to be eaten carefully or they can scratch gums and tongue.  Using an apple corer/slicer might work better, and I may try that at some point.  For now, this is okay, and the flavor is pretty good, as I noted before.  It's a good preservation method.