Turkey Bingo Fundraiser

Just sent a box of dolls and stuffed animals to the Pine Ridge Reservation for Our Lady of Lourdes School Turkey Bingo Fundraiser. The November 13th event is an annual fundraiser that the families look forward to all year long. The school puts together baskets of food for each family that includes a complete turkey dinner with all the trimmings.




Donated items are needed for the Bingo games that can be used as prizes. There is a list of much needed items on the Pine Ridge website. Please check out the different donation drives and give a gift of love to a child.

Making Pear Butter and Honey

Anjou Pears from my Sister's Tree
October 2009

"A farm cook suggests: Pour coffee for drop in guests and let them spread spicy peach, grape or apricot butter on hot buttered toast. Grandmother made fruit butters for two important reasons that are just as valid today: (1) they taste exceptionally good and (2) they make use of the sound parts of windfalls or culls. Among the favorite fruits for butters are apples, apricots, grapes, peaches, pears, plums, quince, guavas and combinations of fruits."

To prepare pears: Remove stems, but do not core or peel. Quarter or slice. Cook in half as much water as fruit. Add 3 tablespoons lemon juice to each gallon fruit pulp.

Put cooked fruit through food mill or colander. For a superior, smooth butter, sieve the pulp to remove fibrous material.

Sugar: Use white or brown sugar. Brown sugar darkens the light fruits; it gives a pronounced flavor to bland ones. The amount of sugar to add depends on personal tastes, but the general rule is half as much sugar as fruit pulp.

Salt: Add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon for every gallon of fruit butter.

Spices: Usually ground spices are added, although some people prefer to omit them. About 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon each ginger and allspice to 1 gallon of butter is a good proportion.

Whole spices tied loosely in cheesecloth may be substituted for ground spices in making light-colored fruit butters. Ginger is an especially tasty spice with pears. Also, adding 3 tablespoons lemon juice to 1 gallon of fruit pulp steps up the flavor.

Additions to Fruit Pulp:
1. Measure the pulp and sugar into a large kettle; add the salt. Boil rapidly, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. As the butter becomes thick, lower heat to reduce spattering.
2. Add spices and lemon juice, if used.
3. Continue cooking until butter is thick enough almost to flake off the spoon, or as Grandma used to say: "Until it is thick enough to spread." Another test for consistency is to pour a tablespoon of the hot butter into a chilled plate - if no rim of liquid forms around the edge of the butter, it is ready for canning.
4. Pour into hot jars and seal. Or process pints and quarts in hot-water bath 10 minutes.

This September I made pear and orange honey/relish, pear and pineapple honey/relish, hot pepper pear preserves, and pear butter made with brown and white sugar.

For the pear butter I used the following:
12 cups chopped uncooked pear
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Cook pear and lemon juice following above suggestions. You should have about 8 cups pulp after forcing fruit through colander.

To the 8 cups pear pulp, add 4 cups brown sugar, 2 more tablespoons lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
Can or process as suggested above.

Mildred's Pear Honey

My step-mother's pear honey is my favorite. This is her easy recipe:

4 cups peeled, cubed pears

3 cups white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine in a heavy pan and cook, stirring constantly for 25 minutes.

Makes 2 pints or 4 - 1/2 pt. jars.
I add bits the bits of pear that remain in the cooked honey to each jar. By the time I fill the last jar it is mostly honey ~ no pear pieces left!

(I double the recipe and cook for 45 minutes, even though the recipe books advise against it! I had way too many pears not to double recipe.) 

Canning Pears 2009

SOURCES:

Photographs:
Canning Pears, Digital Photographs, 2009. Privately held by Judith Richards Shubert, Fort Worth, Texas.

Books:
Nichols, Nell B., Farm Journal Freezing and Canning Cookbook, Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, New York 1963. Judith Richards Shubert Private Library.

Websites:
Produce Oasis, "Anjou Pear," (Online: Produce Oasis Web Site, 2009) http://www.produceoasis.com: accessed October 27, 2009.

Wordless Wednesday - Shuberts Deep Sea Fishing

Buttery Company in Llano - Food or Hardware?

Llano River Bridge
Texas Hwy. 16 North in heart of city of Llano

Llano is Spanish for "plains," and the double L is pronounced as a Y. However the common pronunciation of Llano by the locals is LAN-OH. The river's north and south forks join near Junction, and from there it flows a hundred miles southeast until draining into the Colorado River.

The City of Llano sits on either side of the Llano River in the heart of Llano County. The area is part of the 1.5 billion-acre Llano Uplift, a geologic phenomenon packed with a variety of mineral deposits that took more than a billion years to form.


Llano County Courthouse

Located in the center of Llano's historic square, the courthouse was built in 1893. It is one of 68 that remain of Texas Courthouses built before 1900. (Historical Marker)



Buttery Company was founded around the year 1900 in Llano, Texas, as "Buttery and Bogusch", a partnership between the original Henry Buttery and Mr. Bogusch. Since then, we have grown to service most of Texas as well as parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico and have diversified into a lumber business, a plumbing supply outlet (Abilene, TX), a power lawn equipment distributor, an electrical supplier, and an extensive farming and ranching supplier in addition to retaining its traditional hardware business.

Initially, Buttery and Bogusch flourished by selling stock on consignment from John Webb & Company, of Austin, Texas. Unfortunately, their practice of granting customers easy credit with long payout terms caused the partnership to run out of both money and goods. After surveying the situation, Mr. Webb declared that what little inventory was left was "not worth hauling back to Austin." Henry's oldest son, Frank, then agreed to accept the partnership's debt and began operations as "J. F. Buttery".


Sources:

Photographs:

Llano River Bridge, Llano, Texas, Texas Hwy. 16 N. Digital Photograph, 2009. Privately held by Judith Richards Shubert, Fort Worth, Texas.

Llano County Courthouse, Llano, Llano County, Texas. Digital Photographs, 2009. Privately held by Judith Richards Shubert, Fort Worth, Texas.

Buttery Company, Llano, Texas, on the Square. Digital Photograph, 2009. Privately held by Judith Richards Shubert, Fort Worth, Texas.

Websites:

Buttery Company - Llano, Texas, http://www.butterycompany.com: accessed October 13, 2009.

City of Llano, s.v. "Historic Landmarks and Tourism" http://www.llanotx.com/tourism.htm:accessed October 13, 2009.