Fruit!

I can't get over the enormous quantities of fruit that our one pear tree and one apple tree are producing. Last weekend the kids filled a 30 gallon container with apples and pears. And there are loads more on and under the trees. We really have our work cut out for us (particularly since many of the apples have worm holes to work around - the pears look pretty good). I think I've managed to identify our varieties - Anjou pears and Cortland apples. We're still fairly new to this house and apparently some of these trees apparently bear well only every four years or so, we're in pretty new territory.

We've made some very good apple juice and apple sauce and I hope (perhaps tomorrow) to do some honest-to-goodness canning (of both sauce and pears). I was pleased that our local grocery store carries quart-size Ball canning jars. Some good friends came over to help with apple processing this afternoon, but since we were just getting started with the whole process and decided to get together for it on a whim (and thus had to spend considerable time cleaning before we really got started), we didn't accomplish all that much. But we had fun! I imagine it's one of those things that you get more efficient at over time. After we get the apples a bit under control, I really have to start attending to the pears. They seemed to need more ripening, so we've placed the ones the kids have picked so far into paper bags (seven of them and lots more on the tree!) on a table in the basement. Should be interesting!