Old pear trees

There are two mature pear trees on my farm, planted a generation ago probably. They seem to be made up of two different trees each. Straight up the middle are the trunks that have bearing branches. Two trunks go out from the sides of each tree and these sideways "trees" do not bear fruit. Can anyone explain what's going on with these trees? And, I was wondering if anyone knows what variety of pear they might be. We are in mid-Missouri, the trees are 40-50 feet tall, flower white in early spring. The pears are good size, ovoid and rounder and fatter at the bottom, brownish green skins. They ripen long after falling, and they have marvelous flavor, but even one blemish causes sudden and pervasive rot.

Other questions. What's the best way to put up a LOT of pears? I wish I could find a way that does not call for a ton of sugar.

Is is better to let the pears fall or actively pick them? When?

I don't know much at all about pears. I know there are "eating" pears which ripen soft and "cooking" pears which stay hard even after falling from the tree. I don't like mushy pears so I eat "cooking" pears. My aunt has a "cooking" pear tree in her yard in La. It sounds like the shape you are describing. Sorry I can't be of any real help.

Pambetts, I can Bartlett pears in 2 1/2 c sugar to 5 c water. I boil 5 minutes to make a suger syrup. The closer you can pack the pears, the less syrup you use. I tried using less sugar, but they really need some sweet.

My 2006 harvest

Holy Cow! How long did that take you? You are one major pear packing mama! (As opposed to pistol packing...)

And that's an interesting cupboard the jars are on... does it have a story?
Jay

A day. DH helps peel, cut and core, so it goes along pretty good. I even canned the leftover syrup and used it for peaches the next year!

That is what we call ''The Oak." Mom got it from her side of the family and we used the scarves and mittens from the middle drawer for dress-up. We also discovered Mom's black driving gloves made monkey feet! It did have that wonderful antique patina and DH refinished it. It now has 100 years to renew that patina and I get to enjoy the wood :o)

Thanks for the picture. DH certainly did a lovely job doing the refinish, my complements to him. I've never seen a cupboard with a drawer centered between doors like that. May it stay in your family for many more generations.

And I had no idea they used to make gloves from monkey feet? Good heavens! Makes sense in a gruesome sort of way... did you all squeal when you found out what they were made of? LOL

Jay

Thanks, I love it. It's very heavy. One pull handle on the bottom right was broken when I was little and we never had the handle to keep in the drawer in case it could be fixed..

ROTFL!!!

Actually we squealed with delight when we discovered that's what it looked like and laugh about it to this day!!

LOL!!! I just re-read your 10/22 post... not made OF monkey feet, but made monkey feet. Haha! Very different!

Reminds me of putting my dad's reading sweater on upsidedown on our legs to become a 'dodo' bird. Nothing but our heads sticking out, running around with our feet in his big cowboy boots. Funniest looking thing...

=o)

ROTFL!! Seriously, I never was a dodo bird, in costume anyway. That is hilarious!!

If the pears are rock hard, they are probably the "old-time" Keifer pears. They make great spiced pears because they don't turn to mush when you can them. Since I can everything in a pressure canner (all fruits/acidic stuff at 5lb for 10 min) instead of a water bath canner (to save time and heat/steam in the kitchen), just about all pears I've ever canned have turned out mushy. Which is OK if you like chunky pear sauce! Nowadays, I quarter my pears, peal and core them and cut them into bite-size pieces, put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer, then into bags when their frozen. The skins and cores I cook, strain and can pear juice. The frozen pears I throw into a pan to defrost them and warm them a little to eat in the winter - yum!

I tried pressure canning to cut down on time, but by the time my canner cooled off and the pressure dropped, no time was saved... and I couldn't just rotate jars through as fast as with a water bath.

But maybe I was doing it for longer than 10 min... now I don't remember. Would you do 5# pressure at 7100' or the usual pressure (15#)?
Jay

I'm guessing that the timing and lb would be different at your elevation. Arkansas rarely gets higher that 1,500 ft! Things like beans and non-acidic foods I can at 10#, so for sure it would be different for you. You're right about the time aspect of pressure canning, I guess it's really the steam/humidity that I try to avoid. It's pretty humid to begin with here in the summer. Over the years I've gotten into habits that may not be the fastest/easiest, just habitual! My onions never keep longer than a few months, so I slice or dice them (with a fan to my back!), spread them on a cookie sheet and freeze, then bag. Throw them in a hot pan, and they are almost like fresh. Potatoes that have been stabbed while digging, or with imperfections, I either use for soup stock or cut into matchsticks and freeze the same as onions. Take them out, toss with oil and spices and bake for oven fries. I don't bother canning things like spagetti sauce or hot sauce any more - they never got eaten. Pretty much all I can nowadays is tomatoes, dried beans (lots of these - excellent fast food), soup stock, green beans and apple/pear sauce. Oh, and hot peppers I just put into pint jars with 1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar and don't even can them.

Great ideas on the onions and potatoes! I've been thinking of drying some onions; we got a dehydrator this last summer and it's been great for the apples, peppers, summer squash and corn. Just yesterday I made a yummy Enchilada Soup using dried peppers, corn, and home canned tomatoes (which we do use).

I can totally see why you'd want to avoid the humidity. I managed to score an old wood heater stove last summer and one of these days I'm going to set up an outdoor kitchen and give that a try for canning. Ought to work, at least for water bath.

This last year I think we canned way more relish than we'll ever use...

Sigh, an outdoor kitchen.

I've been thinking about trying to pressure can potatoes. Anyone try that yet? If so, what kind and how did they taste?

I was drying tomato slices and then read that drying kills all the vitamins. Anyone else hear this? I get addicted to the tangy taste and just eat them out of the bag.

I also water bath all fruits. None get mushy.

My Dad was just telling me they had a pear tree when he was a kid, The pears were sour and made you pucker like a lemon.

I kinda doubt you loose all the vitamins. Some are more sensitive to heat than others, some to sunlight, some are pretty stable. I'm sure some percentage is lost, but not all of them. As with any processing of food.

I just did a quick google (dried tomatoes, vitamins), and here's a site you can check out...
http://www.calorie-counter.net/calories-vegetables/sun-dried-tomatoes.htm

So it looks like there's plenty of vitamins in a dried tomato...
Eat happily!
Jay

Yes it does! I could see maybe the vitamin C loss, but not everything. I think I read it from an old article I tore out of a magazine. I need to see if I can find it again and toss it. I do have a nice book that gives contents of everything and the tomatoes should be in there. I never thought to look.

As regards canning potatoes...
I'd think the wax potatoes... reds and whites.... would do better than the russets or bakers.

I haven't done it, but I've always like store bought canned potatoes.

I never buy them in cans, but since I have the canner, I thought I'd try it. I think a nice white potato would work then.

We've gone from pears to tomatoes to potatoes. Funny how a thread can run. I am enjoying my canned pears from last fall!!

I tried Googling old time varieties, but didn't find much information. Unless you have an old catalogue it's hard to know what people planted way back then.

A lot of the old stuff isn't on line... old USDA bulletins might have some info, old ag books from antiquarian booksellers... Small Farmer's Journal prints a lot of them, maybe check the local historical society?
And there's that big seed saving organization in IA, I think, that might have some info. Oh, and ISU (I graduated from there) has an ag dept, maybe they have someone into ag history...

It's funny how you get to depend on the internet and expect every bit of info to be there. I was just curious, but it's nice to know where to start looking. I wish I had a yard big enough to plant all the fruit I'd like to have.

I love the old bulletins and books, the writing is so different and everything is still human based rather than machine based.

I'm going to try and get some elderberry bushes in this year. We've already got chokecherries. Some wild plums, but they've never produced fruit, may dig one or two saplings up and bring them up to the house.

I had an elderberry bush, but it roamed too far into the yard. Then I see there's one started across the road :o) I used to walk down the railroad tracks eating blackberries and wild cherries. They tore everything out. I found some on a fenceline on the edge of town and someone rode an atv along and sprayed about 10' up and down the whole length. They got the mulberries, raspberries and cherries. What a waste. We've been planting peach and wild plum seeds all over the countryside. I hope some of them actually grow :o)

Oh, that's a shame, if nothing else they feed the birds. I'm assuming you can just mow the shoots to keep them restrained?

I've got rambler roses that I put in my flower bed... stupid idea, but I didn't know they were ramblers at the time. Now I've got to dig them out and move them someplace where they can do their thing and not get in my way. Maybe use them for a short wind break, where I can mow down the shoots. Heaven knows these are hardy enough... I dug them up at an abandoned homestead.

Rather than mow, I tore it all out. I really didn't notice any bird on it and I do have jays and catbirds.

Laughing. I won't plant anything I don't research first. My neighbor asked if I wanted a start of hers. No, no room to let them go. I love to find abandoned flowers!

I got some lovely daylilies from the same place... them I put in a barrel. =)
Did you know you can eat daylily tubers? I've yet to work up the nerve...

I did know and haven't tried them either. I'm never sure if hybrids work or if it's just the old orange ones.

We went out iris hunting last year and I came home with an all blue, all yellow, a Wabash and a pinky purplish one. I'd love to find old daylilies, but am running out of room for those I do have. Plus, I need to get 5 new ones out of my garden!

Well, no wonder you ripped out the elderberry! LOL
I used to have a whole bunch of miniature iris, but the gophers ate them during a bad drought year... they only left the old standard purple ones our old lady neighbors gave us.
I'm guessing the hybrid daylilies would just be milder than the old-fashioned ones... whatever that means. LOL
I'd better go do something useful... catch you later.
=0) Jay

The old fashioned orange ones grow wild all over here. So does chicory.

Now many things survive outside a garden here... mullein, elm trees, russian olive are about the only thing and they have become pests...

We've got some nice wild plants that are being moved into gardens. And up here of course there's blue flag... with an occasional yellow one thrown in.

Elderberry grows wild here and I want to make jelly from it.

Hi Cajun! I love the blue of chicory. It grows wild all along the highways. I tried it in the garden once, but it's one of many that looks better in the wild. Same with the orange daylilies. I did dig a varigated double ''Kwanso'' from an empty house. Still haven't tasted it tho. I have never made jelly. I'll have to try it someday.

Jayryunen, I love mullein and also tried it in the garden. Nope! It grows by the hundreds along an old railroad tracks so I enjoy it there. Elms are a dirty tree and I wasn't too unhappy to lose a small chinese elm. Some mulberry are better to have than others. They seem to ripen just about the time we have a million mosquitos. Yep, I dug a blue flag from the RR tracks too.

A lot of my first flowers were from ditches.

I kove making forays into the woods in spring to take pics of the wild flowers in bloom.

This is one from last year. I don't have many on this computer.

Cajun, those are beautiful!! What are they? I wish I had woods, I'd fill it with trilliums and all kinds of ''don't pick'' plants!

The picture looks like a flowering quince. They grow easily here in NWA. I planted an elderberry in my yard before finding out that they will sent out roots in all directions - including under my A/C unit, up next to the house foundation, and 20 feet in all other directions! I've canned potatoes in the past (the wax ones do can better than the russets), but didn't really like them except in potato salad (which I don't eat often), so I just eat what I can fresh and freeze the rest. I didn't know you could eat the roots of daylilies - I thought it was the flower buds - which I have dipped in tempura batter and fried - edible, but nothing fabulous tasting.

Yup, daylily rhizomes are one of those winter foods. Your experience doesn't make want to just run out and start digging! LOL

Good to know about the elderberry... our drier conditions will probably slow it down a bit, but I will definitely put it someplace where mowing will knock it back. Do they produce on first year wood or second?

We got a jelly making book from the library that really helped SO with finding the jelly point...
http://www.jamlady.com/
This is the most incredible jam and jelly book, with tested ideas and detailed info on the whole process; probably more than you want to know, but it's nice to know someone does! LOL We'd had trouble getting the jelly point of the chokecherry just right, and now with the help from this book, we're pros!

Jay

I'll be interested to know how the elderberry jelly tastes. I planted it to make wine (which I have not suceeded at - don't know much about wine making), but as far as I can tell, the berries are pretty blah tasting. They do bear on current year wood, but I think even in a dry climate, they can be a menace. They grow on the roadside around here, and that's where I wish I had left it!

Hmmm... I've never actually tasted elderberry jelly or jam, so maybe I oughta before I bring this wayward child home...

I could just do more chokecherry...

I had the same response when I tasted our local wild rosehips... beautiful bright red, full hips... boooooring! No tang atall.

Hope you have better luck this year with the wine project... I'd love to hear how that tastes!

I wonder if you could make a decent mulberry wine... Have you ever tried it BP?

Luannewolf, thanks for the potato advice. I bought canned potatoes from the store once and didn't like them. I wondered if home canned would make a difference or not. I do like potato salad, so I may try a few jars. Provided I have a good crop this year.

I think I'll just enjoy my daylilies with my eyes :o)

Jayryunen, I'm still getting an occasional elderberry stem. I planted it in 96, dug it out in 98. It regrew, so I moved it in 2000. In 2005 I got rid of it again. My aunt used to make elderberry pie. I thought they were bland too. If they weren't, I would have kept it and dealt with it. Maybe you can get them started somewhere it would be easy to go pick when you wanted some. They grow like a weed. I don't know what mulberry would taste like. DH's friend made dandelion wine and it was good. (That was before my time :o)

Luannewolf, FIL used chokeberries, wild and tame grapes for his wine. We replanted our grapes, but so far I've only made juice from them. DH is supposed to be making me some wine someday! I did make a grape pie. That was pretty good, and I froze a few jars of concentrate.

I'd love to do grapes here, but they'd just get totally blasted. Guess I'll go buy a jar of elderberry something...

maybe I'll plant raspberries, they do up here...

DH and I grew up with grapes. Everyone in town seemed to have them when I was a kid. Now only about three of us grow them. I have the Concords. Dad has a Concord type that is larger and sweeter. Just 1 vine. It's older than me but does it make purple juice!.

I love raspberries! I wish I had room for them! My brother has the red thornless. They're nice!

Amish shops usually do the odd flavors of jelly. That's how I know I don't care for blueberry or huckleberry jelly.