Preserving: Pears

Do you preserve any of your garden to use during the winter?

I typically only do my tomatoes (either as sauce, or soup) 

green beans (pickled) and my cucumbers  (pickled).

But this year was different! 

I visited my great uncle (who I am guessing is in his 70's) and he let Carter and I pick pears right off the tree! And they were the best pears ever.. I'm thinking another visit is in order!

With two grocery bags full, I needed to preserve them somehow. 

I decided to can them in a light syrup. The light syrup recipe came from one of my Ball Preserving Books, it was 2 cups sugar to 4 cups water, dissolve and your done!

Now, to prepare the pears! I threw them all in the sink since I noticed an ant or two on them, and filled the sink with water. Next I peeled and peeled and peeled.  Making sure to place them back in water so they didn't turn brown on me!

Once peeled and ready for the syrup, I quartered them making sure to leave the core and seeds together to throw in my compost ( That's a whole other story, for another day!)

Then I filled my jars and added the syrup.  At this point I stopped. I didn't hot water bath them as I should have and just tucked them in the fridge ( I knew they would get eaten as fast as I made them, and I was right).  But if you have a really big batch and want to can them, just follow your Blue Preserving Book for Hot Water Bath!  

These were delicious! I hope I get the chance to pick up some more!  

What do you can? Preserve? Freeze?