Pear Preserves, sort of

I read the Paula Deen recipes and the 'old fashioned' preserves recipes. All laden with sugar and with added elements from Allspice to Pineapple.

Pear tree limbs so heavy with fruit they were

propped with cedar limbs.

We just want a bit of fruit with our breakfast, not sticky preserves. We don't can. We cook fruit with minimal sugar, cool and freeze. There's no recipe; add just enough sugar to make the fruit tasty and simmer until it's done as evidenced by a rich, dark red color. All the recipes mention 'translucent' fruit after cooking. It changes appearance but I wouldn't exactly call it translucent. 

We cooked two batches today (8 quart boilers to start, when they're done half that amount of fruit and syrup) on Friday and let the blister on my right pointer finger heal until today. Today we peeled and cut two more boilers full. He-who-mows can peel if I slice the pears into 1/2" rounds. Then I cut the tasty parts off the cores. 

It's too hot outside for much work. Another inch and a half of rain fell yesterday. Dog days. It will soon be time to boil green peanuts, another tasty treat from in the freezer for the winter and spring.

Peanut field

If I had a Potager, It Would Be Here

It is a wanna be Potager, not at all compact and neat with paths and borders and an enclosure. Well, there are paths but they have to be at least 54" wide for the mower or a narrow path between two rows that you will see below.

Tomato Patch, Grape Arbor, Blueberry Bushes and Pear Tree. There are other pears not seen.

 

Heirloom Tomatoes, 20 of them, with a hasty path in the middle weighted with pieces of brick and stones. Irrigation is by tiny drippers on two lines.

 

Each line has a tee in the center so the water pressure is equalized to each end.

Grass is already starting, needs a good hoeing and a layer of compost, waiting in the wheelbarrow.

I had 5 pounds of collected earthworm castings, so each plant got a half-cup.

 

The name of the one with the funny shaped leaves is Brandywine, I think.

 

I wondered if Heirloom tomatoes can compete with soil nematodes. I read that Bahia Grass is toxic to nematodes. This little patch was fallow last year and Bahia Grass was part of its makeup. I pulled enough out I think to have done battle with any nematodes.

 

Every tomato needs to have some dwarf Marigolds to help with the battle. I think I have seeds.

 

 

Master controller for the tomatoes and grapes.

Blueberries and pears are watered from a different standpipe.

 

 

Beneficials were really busy when the blueberries bloomed, pollinating so many blooms.

 

 

I thinned some of the pears so the limbs don't break.

 

Figs and peaches are elsewhere.

There are more tomato plants still in the greenhouse, bumped up to bigger pots for now.

Peppers are in containers.

We ate small tomatoes today from last year's plants that survived winter in the greenhouse.

 

The Herb Garden I planned for here has not happened.

My Thyme died. There's Rosemary galore in the Upper Garden, and Oregano gone wild in a flower bed. Parsley from last year is blooming and will soon seed out. I need to start more.

 

Do you have an Edibles Garden? Does it have all the Elements of a Potager:

1. Pathways
2. Enclosure
3. Borders
4. Structure
5. Order: Formal or Informal
6. Focal point
7. Ornamental plants
8. Potting shed or tool storage