Treeskin has new trees to herd....

[treeskin]

I came home from Stan's with a bucket of 3" - 12" tall redbud seedlings, one seedling I suspect is a sweetgum (only has two leaves, kinda hard to tell at that size), a China holly, a golden rain tree (about 6" tall), and a 15" tall seedling off of his neighbor's Japanese yew. Myrna's sure there are more holly seedlings lurking in her yard, and said she'd call me to capture them as soon as she found them.

The yew went in the circular bed in front, between the Spartan rose and the daylilies. The golden rain tree went up in the iris beds, where I'd put the ginkgo seedling this spring (it died, too dry). The redbuds and holly I put in "storage" in a mostly-empty bed for now. We'll see how many survive the winter.

This also prompted me to get the bonsai out of its pot, and into the ground for the winter. Must remember to mulch him.

I'm tempted, next spring, to pot up one or two of the redbuds and try to bonsai them. I think that'd be really cute.

Also came home with about three bushels of pears, and instructions to come get more if I run out. So, today's agenda includes cleaning the kitchen, decanting the meads into fresh carboys, and starting a batch of pear wine. I'd kinda like to do some pear butter, too, but I need to see how I'm set for jelly jars. May have to stop at Walfart tomorrow after work and get some. Gotta find the recipe for pear butter first. That might help. I can't remember what goes into pear butter, besides pears and cinnamon.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

"I can't remember what goes into pear butter, besides pears and cinnamon."

must...resist...urge...to...say...BUTTER!
;-)
m.

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

Let's have a resounding raspberry for the lady up north.

I love you, but you're no help. *grin*

Actually, there's no butter in pear butter. It just spreads like butter, hence the name. I think it's mashed fruit, some spices, and maybe some sugar and/or pectin to thicken it. Still haven't found the recipe.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

If I come and help stir, can I have a little? *blinkblink*

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

You could. I'll need to put it off until I get some jelly jars to put it in. Is there an evening comingup that would be good for you?

[(Anonymous)]

My mother used to get apple (and other fruit) butter from a friend when I was little. As I recall, it's about halfway between applesauce and jelly. It is spreadable (hence the butter part of the name) but has some not-quite-gelatinous body. More fruit pulpy. We used it instead of syrup on pancakes quite a bit - especially when we made them into rollups. MMmmmmm.... the thought of spicy fruit flavors is making my mouth water.

To avoid further raspberries (at least on this subject :p), I have found a slew of pear butter recipes via the wonders of google. Canning recipes, crock pot recipes, even a FREEZER version?!? You should find something there to spark your creativity. If you're anything like me, you can't HELP but tweak things as you go.

Then again, pear raspberry butter could be rather tasty... :-)

m.

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

You've read my mind. I google'd for recipes earlier this morning; came up with two I'm gonna try. The rest seemed like variations I could do myself (extra flavors/spices/etc). One was a basic canned recipe, the other was a diabetic version. I may do a diabetic batch for my grandmother.

If I had raspberries, that might be something to try. However, I do have apples and strawberries in the fridge.....

I also got, this weekend, a new book of jam and jelly and preserve recipes. One of the temptations in the book was an apple-kiwi-honey spread. It's not a big batch, so I might try it this week too.

Must remember to go buy jars.