Preserving Pears & Pears for Baby Food

The fall canning season is now upon us. These are pears from our Bartlett Pear tree but you can purchase them from farmers markets, etc….

Preserving pears is a bit more work than peaches. You need to peel the pears with a paring knife, but a potato peeler will work too. You can use a citric acid or Fruit Fresh type product to keep them from turning brown. I used a 1/4 teaspoon citric acid (You also could use ascorbic acid add as much as needed listed on container) in each quart canning jar before canning.) See Citric Acid or Ascorbic Acid for your preference to use in pears

See Utah State University Extension and/or Ball Blue Book for information on proper bottling/canning Pears

Also see Preserving Peaches and Peaches for Baby Food

Bartlett Pears

Preparing Pears for bottling, drying and for puréed pears

*Ripe pears
*Wash all pears
*Peel, cut in half/slice, remove centers
*Place cut pears in lemon water, 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice to 5 cups Water

Follow directions in each individual preserving pear process.

See the above link for Canning/Bottling Pears

Freezing Pears for Baby

*Wash Pears
*Peel, slice and remove centers, see the above pictures
*Place cut sliced or halved pears into a glass bowl lemon water (2 tablespoons of lemon juice to 5 cups of water) until ready to purée and then drain off lemon water and purée. Pour purée into ice-cube trays for easy portion size or Ziploc Freezer bags which you could also use in smoothies or etc…. and freeze.

After pears are frozen in ice-cube trays remove from trays and label Ziploc Freezer bag/bags and double bag. (I used a regular bread plastic bag first placing puréed pear cubes in bread bag and then in labeled freezer Ziploc bag.) and back in the freezer they go until ready to use or up to three months.

Freezing and drying Pear Slices

Follow the above for preparing pears.

Freezing Pear Slices

*Fruit Fresh, follow instructions on bottle of how much to use, if desired
*Place prepared slice into labeled Ziploc freezer bag, remove air ( I use a straw) and place in freezer until ready to use or up to 4 months.

Note: You can put simple syrup on your pears before freezing but I didn’t want the extra sugar.

Drying Pears in Food Dehydrator

Follow the same process in Preparing Pears and after draining pear slices from lemon water, add fruit fresh if desired to pear slices and place slices onto your dehydrator trays. Follow the directions on your dehydrator for thickness of slices and drying time.

Place dried pear slices in a Ziploc bag with a Food Safe Moisture Packet.

Note: For yearlong storage of dried fruit remove all air from package/Ziploc bag and refrigerate after opening.