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.

More on Jewel Weed

...But not much more.  As I wrote last fall, my bleeding heart bed also has jewel weed.  Last summer was a bad year but this year it's back in force.  I did have to water it a couple of times but it's growing strongly now.

It's not blooming as profusely as it has in some years, but it still looks nice.  The plants themselves are not unattractive.  They go well with the landscaping scheme where they are.  Soon they'll set seed then die back to the ground and just disappear.

As I noted last year, I don't have any in the woods or anyplace else that I have acres of poison ivy--just in this one little bed, and I don't know where it first came from.  I did not get around to harvesting seed last year but I'm going to try to this year.  This is one weed worth spreading around.

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

After the quick jar-filling exercise with the dill pickles, I got what I thought was an inspired notion to keep the cucumbers more or less together after slicing crosswise, as for bread and butter pickles.  That, I thought, would help fill the jars faster because I could just dump in the poker chip-like stacks of cucumbers that were all aligned with each other, then fill in the gaps with shards of sliced onion.

It didn't really work out as planned.  These cucumbers were a little larger in diameter, but as I was packing the jars I belatedly recalled that I had to break up single-cucumber sets and fit the long  spears into a lot of small spaces while jar-packing with the dills.  It may have helped some, but wasn't the quick and easy fix I'd anticipated.  Still, packing went a lot faster for this second batch of the season.

It also illustrates at least one reason why smaller cucumbers are favored for pickling.  I've canned some huge ones. But it is undeniably easier with smaller cucumbers.

In other news, the cost of cucumbers, onion, sugar, and spices for this batch was less than $15 for 8 quarts (actually, 7 quarts and 2 pints).  A quick check of Amazon finds bread and butter pickles going for about $2 per pint or more--many varieties are made with high fructose corn syrup, though sugared (and even sugar-free) types are available.  As long as the time value doesn't exceed half the minimum wage, homemade ones are a bargain...

Dill Pickles

It's one of the most basic things to do in canning: dill cucumber pickles.  Even so, I think I have only made a couple of batches in my life.  I have an inventory and canning log going back to 2012 and it shows no dill pickles, only bread and butter ones--which I do most summers.  There's no garden this year, but in the past, my first choice with the cucumbers I harvested has been to do the sweet ones rather than dills.  The same has held when I've bought cucumbers for pickling.

That being said, I've wanted to get back into dill pickles for a while.  This year I finally have, and the process I followed was pretty easy.

The NCHFP page on fresh-pack dill pickles has a recipe and a process--it calls for pre-brining in a water and salt mixture.  As I have commented more than once in the past, the quantity of food the NCHFP recipe calls for is greater than I can stuff into jars.  On the page linked above, the "7 to 9 pints" recipe starts with 8 pounds of cucumbers.  So doubling that would lead to 16 pounds for 7 to 9 quarts.  I actually used 11 pounds for 8 quarts and my jars were packed.

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I did not pre-brine my cucumbers.  Some canning recipes, like Ball's numerous versions, skip the brining step. I also increased the vinegar a bit; I don't want to use less than a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water.  This effectively yields a solution that is 2.5% acetic acid (the NCHFP recipe would yield a 2.1% concentration). An article written long ago tested botulism growth on whole-cucumber pickles and found that acetic acid concentrations of 0.9% or greater prevented spore growth and toxin formation (Keith Ito, et al.  "Effect of acid and salt concentration in fresh-pack pickles on the growth of Clostridium botulinum spores." Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 1976; 32(1):121-124).  They tested salt concentrations of 0%, 4%, and 8%, but also pre-brined and blanched the cucumbers.

I quartered most of the cucumbers, but further cut some in half--these can be seen in the photo above.  The small pieces I laid on top of the whole cucumbers, which were packed into the jars standing on end.  Unlike with the bread and butter pickles, jar-packing went fast--very fast.  Each jar only took a couple of minutes.  I also tried putting oak leaves (seen above in the bowl on the right) into some of the jars to see if they really help the pickles be crisper, as some sites allege.

As the pictures above and below show, my jars were packed about as tightly as possible. Even after processing, they're still full of cucumber with little empty space.  Increasing the cucumbers by 45% wouldn't be possible.

Refurbishing the Well

As I noted in June, I had issues with the well.  There was a lot of sediment and testing showed that it was contaminated with bacteria.  The casing seemed to be allowing runoff water to penetrate the well bore, which would account for both the sedimentation and bacteria.  Ground water filtered by soil is suitable for drinking; rain puddles are generally not.

The well company came out to do the sealing and backfilling.  The floor of the hole below was covered with cement, then bentonite, further limiting water penetration immediately adjacent to the well casing.

The outcome of the work seems hopeful at this point: the water is looking decent, although there haven't been any heavy downpours since the job was done.  I did a follow-up qualitative bacterial test (the quantitative one from UGA costs over forty dollars, so I'm satisfied with qualitative for the moment).

 I used one of the Industrial Test Systems coliform tests.  The culture medium, when dissolved in the sample, makes it look like a urine test.  If no coliform bacteria are present, that's how it will stay.

 If, on the other hand, coliform bacteria are present, it will turn blue-green.  Above is how the sample looked at 24 hours, sitting on the kitchen counter at about 79-80 degrees.

 Later, it became pretty obvious.  The label further notes that in the presence of
Escherichia coli, aka E. coli, the sample will fluoresce blue when an ultraviolet (365 nm) light is shone through it.

It looked pretty fluorescent and blue to me; E. coli it was.  So this was disappointing but not necessarily unexpected.  I did shock the well with chlorine bleach in June after the first test, but there had been rain since then that had silted everything up--so a new influx of bacteria-contaminated water was almost expected.  Alas.

I also got new measurements on the well (24 inches in diameter, about 16 feet of water at the bottom, equaling roughly 375 gallons; see: this calculator...basically, the volume in cubic inches or feet can be estimated using pi x r squared x height, then divided by 231 cubic inches or 0.1337cubic feet per gallon [7.48 gallons per cubic foot]).

UGA and other sites recommend adding enough bleach to get to about 200 ppm of free chlorine; I used 6% bleach so adjusted my amount accordingly and added about 1.5 gallons, diluted with water before pouring it in so I wouldn't risk damaging pump wiring or anything else).  See also this guide from Canada.

I then ran the bleachy water through the whole system, into the pressure tank, water heater, and out every fixture in the house (of which there are not many--kitchen and bathroom sinks, toilet, tub/shower).  I returned the next day and started pulling chlorinated water out of the well.  UGA and everyone else recommends, "Rid the system of the remaining chlorine by turning on outside faucets, one at a time, and letting them run until you no longer smell chlorine."  That's easier said than done.  There's some concern about dumping heavily-chlorinated water on plants and in my case, we're talking 375 gallons (although some at the bottom is inaccessible because it's below the level of the pump).

So far, I haven't seen any indication of plant trouble, but I have only poured water on grass.  Mostly I have run it into a stock tank for 24 hours to let the chlorine dissipate, then poured it out.

So the well seems to be fixed. I've also flushed out a lot of sediment from the pressure tank and water heater that got in there before the reno; hopefully all I'll have to deal with now is a little sand here and there.  The purple vial above is the coliform culture from the First Alert water testing kit (ITS also sells one that looks pretty similar).  It started off and remained purple; it turns yellow in the presence of coliforms.  That's mildly encouraging.  While I wouldn't expect any bacteria in the well at this point, I drew the sample from the kitchen faucet, so it shows I successfully got chlorine throughout the system.  Now it should stay negative.  A subsequent follow-up was still negative, which was more encouraging.  Now there are just the lingering silt issues...below is what's coming out of the tap after passing through a one micron nominal filter.