windy and rainy weather have not been kind to the pears. many have blown to the ground and are now bruised and unusable. it makes me rather sad. i've canned some and made pear-ginger jam, but still, it's an incredible waste lying there on the ground, rotting. i have this feeling i should have done more. i should have made pear cider. i should have canned more. i should have made more jam. should have, should have, should have... i have an almost overwhelming sense of guilt at the waste.
my jam is delicious - plenty of ginger, organic sugar and vanilla with the pears. but i'm not really that good at jam other than achieving good flavor. i have trouble with it setting properly, so this is really quite runny and more of an ice cream topping than a jam per se. and i don't know why that is. i do the test on a cold plate and that always appears to set up, but once i put it in jars, i almost never get a proper set. i used jam sugar, which has pectin in it for this batch, as pears have almost no pectin themselves. i followed the instructions on the package and in pam corbin's wonderful river cottage preserves book, but still, it's a thin syrup. but it tastes great, especially with a bit of blue cheese on a nice cracker, so we're using it anyway.
i guess i'll just have to try harder next year.
