Stealing and Canning Pears

Our pear tree is over flowing with pears. So I decided to try canning some of them. The kids eat applesauce faster than I can buy it so my mom gave us some homemade applesauce. They love this kind even better. So I had the idea to make pear sauce.

One of my neighbors kept mentioning that she was going to come over to pick pears when they were ready. She didn't ask if it was okay, she just told me she was coming. I tried to tell her that I wanted to can some and I'd call her if there was any left, but I could tell she wasn't going to listen. So I picked them before they were ripe and kept them in the house to ripen. We also pick up the rotten pears that have fallen to the ground because we don't want the bees to sting the kids while they are swinging.

One day after we'd picked the pears off of the lower branches and cleaned up the rotten ones I was cooking lunch and Caitlin asked me why there were people in my back yard. I didn't believe her, but after she continued talking about it for a few minutes I went to check. Sure enough, my neighbor and her daughter were out in my back yard picking up pears. It really weirded me out. They hadn't knocked on my door or called to ask if they could come over. They knew I was home because they'd been in their yard when I returned from taking Dominic to school. I was right in the middle of cooking and couldn't leave the stove so I waited until they came up to my back door so I could talk to them about it. They NEVER came. The next thing I know they are walking past my kitchen window and out the back gate to return home. 

Apparently, around here,  it's okay to do something if the previous owners allowed you to do it. You don't have to check with the new owners because you are "grandfather'd in" Arghh!

Last week I headed to my mom's house to borrow her strainer and canning equipment. Dominic is so curious and asked me tons of questions about the process. He begged to skip school so he could watch, so I promised to take step-by-step pictures so he would know what we had done. 

Caitlin wanted to help so badly. So she climbed up on the table and was handing us pears as we cut them up.

 

My dad took the day off of work so he could get some work done on the house. But I think he spent more time with a little girl than he did working on the house. =)

My mom wasn't much better.

After a very long day, we finished.

 

I ended up with 24 quarts of pear sauce.