I planted my first fruit tree in my own yard about 25 years ago. It was a pear tree that languished in the heat and sand of the high desert of Los Angeles County. Then some advice from an orchardist caused me to quadruple the water I was giving it and to sock it with some lawn fertilizer. The little tree bloomed and leafed out mid summer like it was the beginning of Spring. Six little pears grew on that poor little tree. When they were about half size, I babysat for a friend. Her six-year-old came in with all six pears in his grubby little paw. “Look what I found in your back yard,” he said.
My fruit growing attempts were thwarted by Mother Nature as we moved before the little tree had time to re-bloom. I planted peaches, pears, apples and apricots in Colorado. I replanted a few years later when the horses and deer had destroyed the first round. After 12 years in the house we built, I got about a dozen peaches off of a tree right before we moved.
Oklahoma is good for tree fruit. Before the boxes were unpacked, I went to the store and bought the last little peach and plum in the garden center. The plum started producing a nice little crop about 4 years ago. The dwarf peach gave us a decent little crop, just enough to eat, about three years ago.
In the meantime, I planted nine more fruit trees. More peaches, two pear, two apple, a cherry, an apricot, a nectarine.
This year, for the first time in my adult life, we have a truly abundant harvest. We had more plums than we could use, and as many peaches as we wanted. We did have to place smudge pots under the trees one night when a late frost came, and one pear and one peach didn’t produce anything. But everything else is going strong. The squirrels and racoons got about half the peach crop off the bigger Elberta tree, but here is a sample of one day’s picking.
The pears are “Ayers” variety and happily, I picked them green before the varmits were attracted to the tree. I HIGHLY recommend the Ayers pear. They are firm, sweet and juicy with a fine texture and a smooth skin.
They took two years longer to produce a crop than the Bartlett, but they are resistant to fireblight and the Bartlett is stricken every year, so that it drops its crop before it’s ready.
So, I’m finally able to can fruit that I have raised myself. I have learned that pressure canning is the quickest and easiest.
I got the best results by filling the jars with peeled, sliced fruit to within an inch of the top, adding a 4-1 water to sugar syrup, (maybe a little less for some) wiping the rim, placing the lid and pressuring in the pressure canner, (see it in the background on the stove?) on 5 pounds of pressure JUST UNTIL IT STARTS TO HISS. I immediately turn it off and let it cool for about half an hour. Then I remove the jars to cool on the counter.
I did exactly the same process with the pears. (I blanch the skins off the peaches in boiling water. I peel the pears by hand, since blanching turns them brown and you lose too much of the fruit.)
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