I love this time of year!
I have so many memories of standing at the kitchen sink helping my Mom bottle fruit.
This is how we do pears at our house...
In clean and sterile quart jars add about 3 inches of HOT water at 1/3 cup sugar, stir until sugar is dissolved.
Add some cold water to your sink with the stopper in place. Blanch pears for 20-25 seconds in a pot of boiling water. After blanching place pears in the cold water. The skin of the pears should now slide off with your hands. Cut the pear in half lengthwise and use a spoon to clean out the seeds, stem and strings. You can either place the halves in the prepared quarts or cut again lengthwise for quarters. Fill the jar with pears making sure to not have any pears or liquid in the neck of the jar. If more liquid is needed to cover the pears add additional water. Once all of your jars are filled, use a wet cloth to clean the tops of the jars - anything on the rim can prevent the jars from sealing correctly. Next place your lids in a small saucepan of boiling water for 60 seconds and then using tongs pull out a lid, place it in a ring and screw it onto the jar. Repeat for all of your jars. Now on to processing. It can be different based on if you are using a steamer or a waterbath and your elevation. But, I process mine for 30 minutes.
