Spring Blossoms

 

Spring has sprung and even with a certain amount of neglect things still bloom forth in all their glory.  I look around our yard and there is a riot of blooms.  Not a lot of color in these pictures but there is some.  These first blossoms are a product of our neighbors hard work and lightly fill the air with a scent of sweetness as I race by them to or from somewhere.   Jasmine that covers the fence and a sprawling bulb the I'm not sure the name of.  The other ones are from our pear and apple trees repectively.  They are old but oh so productive.      

Pears a Plenty

Pears.  And lots of them.  We eat them fresh.  We made a delicious pear crisp and will make another.  Lots of canned pears in a variety of ways.

From top to bottom.  Sliced pears in a light sugar syrup.  Then pear syrup of a sort.  I used the recipe from Pomona's Universal Pectin for syrup.  Cooked pears and honey with a little lemon.  It's a jam recipe but with half the amount of pectin.

The next two are my first attempts at jam.  The one that made the house smell like a candle shop was pears and vanilla.  Pear Vanilla Jam.  Fresh pears cooked with real vanilla bean.  That recipe came from the blog Food in Jars.  Then I tried Pear Cinnamon Jam.  Delicious.  I kept a bit out without pectin.  We've been using it in plain yogurt and on vanilla ice cream.  Pears a Plenty.

When I asked Eli what kind of jam he wanted on his toast this morning pear or raspberry he replied raspberry.  "Yea.....We've kind of had a lot of pears lately.