Top products from r/BackyardOrchard

TL;DR: pear butter recipe and canning instructions, and equipment list.

Make pear sauce. Basically cut the pears up, have a pan going to heat them up until they're soft and use an immersion blender or blender or food processor to pulverize it. You can use most of the pear, cut out the rotten stuff, and anything else that's nasty.

Fill your crockpot up with water, measure how much it takes to fill it up. Now, take a 1 cup measuring cup and measure with a ruler what the water level is after removing each cup. That's the technical way to do it, it can take a while to do it. Why you're doing this is because you're cooking your butter down to half it's volume. So if you start out with 14 cups of pear sauce, you'll want to end up with 7 cups of pear butter. If you know what the different levels are, it makes it a lot easier. Crock-Pot walls aren't straight, that's why you use the water to measure it.

Stir 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger (I usually double or triple, or more, the cinnamon and ginger) into some sugar (like 1/4 or 1/3 cup), then mix it into the pearsauce. Using the sugar keeps the spices from sticking together in clumps when added to the fruit. Start with the crock on LOW if it will be going overnight, or on HIGH if you are starting in the morning and will be around to stir the sauce. Remember, you DON'T USE THE LID on the crock pot. Depending on your pears, you might need to add more sugar, but usually not. I think this normally is what I put in about 20ish cups of sauce.. I honestly can't remember. I just put "enough" in, and I've never had to much. It's a taste thing, I like stronger cinnamon and ginger flavor.


Pull out enough foil to go completely around the crockpot, plus enough to join the two ends together by folding them over together a few times. The bottom of this collar will be crimped around the rim of the crock so the rest of it sticks up about 10" above the crock, which should give enough protection from splatting that will happen later as the sauce thickens into butter. When the sauce is first cooking, I often put some creases in the collar to make the hole at the top somewhat smaller to keep more heat in, maybe a 5-6" opening. Just open it up when you need to stir & scrape edge, then close it up a bit. The longer the sauce cooks, the more often you will need to scrape the sides & stir. I usually just stir the thickened stuff from around the rim back into the rest, unless it goes too long & smells scorched. If you scorch it, just be careful not to scrape it off into the butter.


The total time will depend on 3 things: the juiciness of your pears, how long you cook on LOW vs HIGH, and how thick you like your pear butter. As a rule of thumb, plan on cooking the sauce down to about half of the starting amount, but check the consistency before that & stop when you like it. You can put a tablespoon full on a saucer and put it in the freezer for a few minutes to chill it, as it thickens up somewhat when cooled.


I usually plan  on 12 to 18 hours total cooking time, with maybe 8 of that on LOW. If you are doing it only in the daytime & have it on HIGH the whole time, it could be faster.         IF you get it cooked down to the right consistency but can't can it immediately, you can take the collar off, stir well, put the LID ON and set on LOW or KEEP WARM till you are ready.


Water bath canning is the way to go, processing for 10 minutes for either pints or half-pints. Headroom on the jars should be 1/2".


This is the same recipe I use for Apple butter, sometimes you need to add some more sugar. It depends on what kind of apples you use. Also, the pear butter will get very brown by the end, that's ok.


For the water bath canning. It's super easy. Get a water bath canner. It's basically a big pot with a rack in it. Walmart should have it, Amazon, garage sales, or little hardware stores (like ace, do it best, etc). It should be about $20 if you buy it new.

For fruit butters, pint jars are best, but it's a preference thing. If you want to give them away as gifts, maybe use the 6oz jelly jars. It's up to you. Ball is the gold standard. Again, Walmart, Amazon, the same hardware stores as the canner. They're usually significantly cheaper at garage sales. The jars and rings are reusable, lids are not.

Fill your water-bath with enough water to cover your jars by about an inch. Submerge the empty jars and heat up the water. I like to use hot water to fill the canner, cause it takes a little less time to get it to boil. Once it's boiling set a timer for 10 minutes and keep it boiling. Do the same for your lids, but in a small saucepan.

Once it's boiling, remove your jars and dump out the water that's in them. Put the jars on the counter, I put a towel down, and a wire cooling wrack on top of that. There's a few tools that you can get that help with this. )I'll post Amazon links at the bottom of this.) Fill the jars with the hot pear butter with 1/2" headspace (this means 1/2" from the rim). Minimize air bubbles, you can use a clean spoon to stir the air bubbles out out. Take a damp paper towel and wipe any butter off the rim Place a sterilized lid on each jar, put a ring on, hand tight. Place filled jars back into water bath.

Bring water back back up to boil and let boil for 10 minutes. Remove jars from canner and place back onto the cooling wrack. Once they're cool, check to make sure they're all sealed by seeing if the lids pop. This is the button, like on pickle jars, when they're unsealed it sounds like a clicker, when they're sealed, they're pulled down. They may seal right when you take them out of the canner, you'll hear them pop, some may take a few minutes though. If they're sealed, you can take the rings off, and they are shelf stable (we've had stuff still good over a year later). If any aren't sealed, just put them in the fridge once cooled off and eat it first.


It's not that hard to do, I'm just trying to be detailed.


Now for the promised links.

Ball Blue Book Guide To Preserving, 37Th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OEJZSNW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_905HDbGDP5GWY

This is basically a canning Bible, it's a good resource if you're wanting to learn more about canning. Lots of recipes. It's important to get your recipes from official sources, usually you don't want to get recipes from random strangers off the internet until you know what is normal. You don't want to put yourself into a situation where you process something in an unsafe manner. I can tell you that the Apple/pear butter recipe I gave you is safe, and can be compared to other official ones if you want to independently verify it.


Tools:
Granite Ware Enamel-on-Steel Canning Kit, 9-Piece https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KHN602/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_945HDb278TD1T

Ball 40801 Golden Harvest Mason Regular Mouth 8oz Jelly Jar 12PK 'Vintage Fruit Design', RM 8 Oz, Clear https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YCX4SJ0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_I55HDbM3YGXNN

Norpro Canning Essentials Boxed Set, 6 Piece Set https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000DDVMH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_d65HDbNK2VGJX

Out of the "essentials kit" really the funnel and jar grabber tongs is the only thing that you'll need.



If you have any other questions, feel free to pm me or ask on this post. My wife and I have taught a lot of people how to can a lot of different things, it's a skill we really enjoy passing on.

Also, if you buy jars new, they usually come with rings and lids. If you do this again next year and are buying new lids, just make sure you are paying attention to whether or not your jars are "wide mouth" or "regular mouth" those are the two standard lid sizes.

Ok, the trees look healthy from what I can see. Assuming they get full sun and enough chill hours for your zone then you can try a bloom fertilizer like this one Jobes Organic Fertilizer then add 6” to 8" of shredded wood mulch with a 2’ radius from the trunk of the trees. You’ll need to keep this schedule every 3 months starting after your last frost before spring bloom and finish in fall when your trees go into dormancy. Also, you’ll have to google to figure out which branches have your fruiting spurs. And which are just growth. A good pruning schedule is always important. Good luck with your trees. :)

Here is my favorite book I have found for starting new trees and taking care of them: Grow A Little Fruit Tree

A good place online to read about varieties and order apple trees for shipping is Stark Bros Nursery.

Typically, you get them during the early winter when they're dormant and they come "bare root" so there's not a root ball. Your nursery can help you with planting times. If you don't know your USDA Hardiness Zone it can help with looking that up, too.

A surprising thing to me was that you need to worry about pollination! Some trees require a cross-pollinator tree of another type. Both that book and that site and your nursery have information on that too.

It will take a few years for the trees to mature and produce fruit, so start sooner and have fun!

> We're holding off on the dormant oil until things warm up, but normally our schedule calls for pears to be sprayed by this time.

That makes me realize that my task of pruning stonefruit as buds swell conflicts with the task of applying dormant oil 1 - 2 wks after pruning, but prior to fruit bud swell. How should I resolve this?

> What are you using to combat fire blight?

Just Fertilome Fire Blight Spray (aka. streptomycin) its a lot more expensive than copper but has been shown to be more effective in the studies I've read - I only have two trees right now so a 2 oz jar is all I need. FYI I have read several papers that suggest a product called Blossom Protect is just as effective but seems to be more targeted towards orchards and is hard to buy in small quantities. (Just saw your edit, haha. Going to keep this here anyway.)

> As for your borers [...]

I don't really have a problem with them just trying to establish a preventative plan as I understand peach trees have a very short life-span.

> Why are you waiting to prune your apricots?

IIRC the reasoning to wait is since they bloom so early their blossoms can get wrecked by a spring frost so you want to see how many blossoms survive, and then adjust your pruning severity accordingly. Honestly though since I have just one tree I might just be crazy enough that if I see a cold day/night I'll throw some clear poly over it to make an impromptu greenhouse and put a space heater in there to keep temps at slightly above freezing.

> Care to elaborate on your uncertainty about spraying calcium?

I just haven't read into it that much. Is it necessary?

> Are you a member of the Backyard Fruit Growers, by chance?

I am not, looks really interesting but I'm closer to Philly than Lancaster, haha. $15 for 2 years membership... very tempting

If you're going to do this yourself, you've got some reading to do. You'll need to learn to identify the pests you're dealing with and then research methods for controlling them. If you want to do it right, you'll eventually become an amateur entomologist. Understanding the life-cycles and lifestyles of your pest is key to dealing with them effectively.

As for pruning.. If you take photos of your trees I might be able to give you more specific advice, but first you need to familiarize yourself with the physiology of trees. There are some good youtube videos out there but I feel reading is the best way to learn. Basically, each year you have a limited amount of wood you can remove from the tree. (Some say 1/4 to 1/3 of the tree's total mass.) Don't try to correct them in one year. Start out by making big cuts (going for older, thicker wood and taking large portions) and remove the dead wood. Next year, make some finer detailed cuts.. You'll be progressively refining the shape every year until you get where you want to be. Then from there you have to maintain it and keep the tree in balance.

Some books to get you started:

If you can find it at a local library or are willing to shell out the money to get your own copy this is one of the best, most concise books on pruning and training I've ever read.

The Holistic Orchard and The Apple Grower written by Michael Phillips are excellent for beginners.

I would always recommend The Backyard Orchardist by Stella Otto to anyone who wants to start out. The book is honest and informative, and she's a local that I respect. It covers all major fruit trees, not just peaches, but as a single book for a beginner I think it does very well.

I use this

Ok for use on fruits and vegetables. I stop spraying it a good 4 weeks before harvest, just to be safe.

Have you tried grafting? Rootstock and scionwood from a place like https://www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/ will yield you trees at a rate of about $5 each. Your grafted trees will be about 3 years behind the ones for sale at Home Depot.

I started a few years ago with this tool - it's the "easy button" https://www.amazon.com/AGPtek%C2%AE-Professional-Nursery-Grafting-Pruner/dp/B00CPJTSHU/

I put in 9 trees last year and still learning all of the mistakes I made. I don't have room for full-sized trees (15' or taller/wider) so started with dwarf and semi-dwarf. This may have been a mistake based on a couple of books I've been reading. If you do have limited space, or want to keep your trees manageable (a good point by /u/pecantrees about professional trimming and ER costs), then I highly recommend Grow a Little Fruit Tree by Ann Ralph. One of the things that she covers extensively, and I've heard stressed by others, is proper pruning. It won't answer several of your questions but I think it's a good resource to learn about pruning young trees and maintaining size without overly limiting fruit production.

Old post, but I found this. I think this is the best way of dealing with squirrels in garden areas.

This probably is the most cost effective, trouble free way. That way you don't have to hassle with traps. The problem with trapping is that other squirrels will move back in the territory to replace the ones that are trapped.

This won't help you this time, but I have these wrapped around all my small trees. I have had them for about 5 years and they work fine.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0026T3AVY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_0bQ2Ab8MFSP77

I would buy this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933392134/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

and then watch this video https://www.possiblemedia.org/product/the-permaculture-orchard-beyond-organic/

Between those two you would have everything covered. Both of those guys are within your USDA zone.

American horticulture society pruning and training

https://www.amazon.com/American-Horticultural-Society-Pruning-Training/dp/0756671892

There are several products you could apply for extra protection, called tree wound dressing & pruning sealer. Example 1, Ex 2

I personally used a large Rat-Zapper.
Rat zappers are plastic traps that humanely electrocute vermin when they venture in to eat. The problem is, they may not be interested in the trap if they still have food.


I would lure the squirrels with bird seed/other foods.
You can use a live trap like this and bait it with squirrel poison as well.


If you use a rat zapper, it is important it is kept out of the elements. Perhaps stick it into a black plastic bag, then cover it in rocks. Put the traps at the base of your trees. lure with bird seed and peanut butter.