A Sticky Situation

My countertops are sticky . . . my floor is sticky . . . my lower cupboards are sticky . . . my hotpads are sticky . . . my stove is sticky . . . my oven door is sticky . . .  and it seems like every dish and rag in the house is dirty!

Why???

Because there are pears everywhere!!!

What can you make from 72 pounds of pears?

Twenty-one quarts of bottled pears

A huge bag of dried pears

Three rounds of fruit leather 

And I still have pears left!  Ahhhh!

I'm tired and sticky, but I think it will be well worth it.

My canning buddy, Diane, and I each bought two boxes of pears.  We canned from 9:30-5 on Tuesday--bottling 28 quarts.  It felt like a huge accomplishment until we divided up the remaining pears and discovered that we each still had a box and a half left!  Unbelievable.

Two boxes of pears sure go a long way.  More fruit leather and dried pears tomorrow.  (It's tomorrow now.  Five more rounds of fruit leather today.  I'm done.  Yeah!!!  Now I just need to mop my floor.  Gee.  I can't wait.)

I borrowed the dehydrator, and now I want one!  I'll add it to my dream list--right next to one of those cool blender/wheat grinder contraptions.  (Steve dreams of sports cars, trucks, and electronics, and I dream of kitchen appliances!!!)

*Ignore this part.  It's just notes for me to remember next time I bottle pears.  
The syrup was a ratio of 1 C sugar to 3 C water.   We processed for 35 minutes.  
A good thickness for dehydrating was about 1/3 inch thick--double the size I do for apples.  I soaked the pears in lemon water for 1/2 hour before I put them in the dehydrator.  
The fruit leather was made by pureeing pears--skin on.  I added applesauce and a little bit of honey and lemon juice.