PEAR DAY: Pear Relish, Pear Honey Marmalade, and Pear Bread

Our neighbor Ralph appeared at the door Tuesday with a 5-gallon bucket of pears. 

Today I decided to spend the day processing the pears.  First I had to peel them which took about an hour.  Then the next step was to cut them into thin slices away from the hard core.

 I had already made some pear preserves so i decided to make my favorite, Pear Honey Marmalade.  It is made of grated pears, sugar, and crushed pineapple. I made 2 recipes of that, bringing the mixture to a boil and simmering for about an hour until pears are transparent and the juice thick like syrup.

Then I made several jars of pear relish.  This is so good to eat with vegetables, put on hot dogs and hamburgers, add to salads, etc.  The relish is made of ground pears, green bell peppers, chopped onions, and a couple of red hot peppers.  To this you add a quart of vinegar and bring to a boil, and then fill jars with the hot mixture and seal. 

I made 2 recipes of pear bread, filling a loaf pan and 7 small loaf pans.  I didn't have any pecans to put in it so I sprinkled the top of each loaf with roasted sunflower seeds.  Delicious!

After all this I still had a lot of pears left over.  So I added some sugar and cooked them for about 2 hours and made some more pear preserves.  I'll probably give a lot of them away over the winter.