Millions of Pears, Pears for Me!

I have been getting busy with pears lately.  Delicious little pears from my pear tree!  Last year all of my pears went to waste.  I didn't realize how quickly they would ripen and so they all ended up falling off my tree into a mushy pile... which the wasps loved!  This year I was ready for them though!  Once I saw one turning yellow I knew they all must be close to being ripe so I picked them all off the tree to let them ripen inside, like you're supposed to.  As they ripened I put them in the fridge so they didn't get too ripe, and after a couple of days they were all ready for canning! 
I have been slowly getting into canning things.  Two years ago I made dill pickles and bread and butter pickles, and then last year I made pickled beets.  It's a lot of work, and takes some time, especially when you don't know what you're doing.  But once you get the basics down it gets much easier.  The most time-consuming part is prepping the vegetable.  In this case, peeling pears.  I peeled pears for over an hour one day and another 45 minutes the next.  My hand was so cramped up!  But even with all the work, it is such a satisfying thing to do.  And the canned food lasts for a year, so you get to enjoy your hard work for so long.  Home canned food also makes for beautiful gifts, some people are amazed at the fact that "you made pickles?!!", people definately appreciate the hard work!
So with all the pears I picked this year I was able to make 7 half-quart jars of sliced pears and 4 quarter-quart jars of pear butter.  These are most of the pears that I picked...

To can your own pears all you need for special equipment are some jars with rings and new lids.  (You need to have unused lids so that the wax seal will still work.)  There are special pots you can buy for processing the jars in, I bought one this year at Canadian Tire for $15.00, but all you really need is a tall pot that your jars can sit in and be completely covered with water.  And this is how you can pears:

1. Peel, core, and quarter pears.  Keep them in a bowl with water and lemon juice to keep them from turning brown while you keep peeling.
2. Make a syrup to cook your pears in.  I like a light syrup, which is 1 cup of sugar per 3 cups of water.  Make however much syrup you think you will need for the amount of pears that you have.  Slowly cook the water and sugar on a low setting until the sugar dissolves, and then bring it to a boil.
3.  Add the pears to the boiling syrup and leave them in it until it comes to a boil again.
4.  Use a slotted spoon to fill hot, sterilized jars* with the pears.  Use a ladle to cover the pears with the syrup, leaving a 1/2" of space at the top of the jar.  Take a butter knife and stir the pears a bit to make sure there are no air bubbles.
5.  Take a clean, damp cloth and wipe the rim of each jar, and then place a hot, sterilized lid* on each jar, followed by the ring which you don't need to over tighten.  Twist it on until it just tightens.
6.  Process your jars by placing them upright into a large pot of boiling water, the jars should be completely covered.  Let the jars boil for 20 minutes, more if you are at a high altitude. (If you don't have a canning pot with a rack then you can place a tea towel at the bottom of the pot so that the jars don't bounce around too much.)
7.  Remove the jars and let cool for 24 hours without moving.  Place them on a cookie sheet lined with a clean tea towel.  Then store them in a cool, dark place for up to a year.
*To sterilize the jars I put them and the rings in the pot I will also be processing them in and then cover them with water and bring to a boil.  I put the lids in a small bowl and cover them with boiling water.  When I am ready to use the jars I lift them out with tongs (use a jar lifter if you have one!), but leave the water in the pot so that it is already boiling when it comes time to do the processing.

This is how I set everything up to get ready for canning:

These are the pears being processed:

And the final product!: