Fruit Season

My dining room table is about 80% covered with fruit right now! It's all laid out by the sliding glass door so that it can ripen up a little bit more in preparation for "processing" which really just means "preserving".

My friend Kelly invited me to go pick pears and plums from some fruit trees that are at her studio. The fruit's falling all over the ground and she says she wants it gone. I picked a large box of pears and half a bucket of plums. The plums are small but very ripe and sweet. The pears are not quite ripe, still a little green but will ripen well on my table within a week and then be ready to be made into pearsauce.

My mother and grandma went to Brigham City yesterday and brought me back a case of peaches also. And while they are perfect for eating right now, they need a few days of ripening to be great for canning. If they're not almost over-ripe, the skins won't peel well after blanching - something I became acutely familiar with last year when I did the peaches on my tree. Do you remember my grousing about it? It was awful and it took me forever to get those peaches canned.

So I guess you know what I'll be doing for the next week or so between the peaches, pears and plums. And not in the too distant future, there will be apples galore to collect. I can't wait!

By the way, I know that if you weren't raised in a household where canning was done frequently, it may seem like an overwhelming task. But it's really not - especially fruit and some light vegetables like pumpkin and tomatoes. You don't even need a pressure cooker. If anyone would like some very easy directions on how to can fruit like apricots, peaches, and pears - I'd be glad to post a tutorial on it. You want to feel like June Cleaver? Then learn how to can/bottle/preserve - you'll be domesticated in no time!