My mom and I are quite a pear!

Yesterday my mom came over to help me can pears. I have a friend who has a pear tree and she picks the pears and I can them. She lets me keep half. I think she has the better end of the deal, but hey, it's relatively free food!Aren't they beautiful?!
14 quarts down, many many many more to go!

Grape Expectations

Last night after work I went over to my friend Patty's house to pick grapes. I picked for and hour and a half. The grapes are very nice this year. It seemed early to me to be picking, as grapes around here aren't usually ready until September or so. Here is what I came home with! I added the 2 liter of Mt. Dew so that you could see how large the "bucket" was. My highly advanced/top of the line set up. Ha ha.

After a 25 minute bath.... they are ready to go! I got 20 quarts of juice last night and I only used the grapes in the white container! I have a whole "bunch" more to do today. I may venture into grape jelly or jam today along with some more juice. I stayed up until 2:45 this morning and the boys had me out of bed by 6:45. Sleep is overrated! I need to run to the store to get some more lids and some pectin. I used a very easy recipe that can be found here. I only added 1/4 c. sugar to each jar and I will still dilute the juice when I give it to the boys.