Harvest season Archives - REBECCA LUNCAN

A Kitchen Overflowing with Pears

This year our Bartlett and Asian pear trees have been unbelievably generous and we’ve harvested over a thousand pears! While the orchard is beautiful, it also means long hours in the kitchen. I have two kids that love pears so all the extra work is worth it.

After sharing some of my pear paintings recently (you can see them here: A Season of Pears blog post), I thought it would be fun to also share the recipe I use to preserve Bartlett pears. It’s simple, sweet, and keeps us stocked through the winter and beyond.

Bartlett Pear Water Bath Canning Recipe

Ingredients:

8–10 pounds of ripe but firm Bartlett pears

8 cups water

2 cups sugar (for a light syrup — adjust to taste)

4 tablespoons lemon juice

Cinnimon sticks

whole cloves

Instructions:

Wash, peel, and slice the pears. To prevent browning, place prepared pears in a bowl of water with lemon juice.

Fill up and heat the water in your canning pot and heat up your canning jars. In a second large pot, combine the water and sugar. Heat until the sugar dissolves, making a light syrup.

Pour the cut pears into the light syrup and boil for 5 minutes.

Pack the pear slices into the hot sterilized jars, and add 1/4 cinnimon stick and a clove to each jar.

Pour the hot syrup over the pears, leaving ½ inch of headspace. Use a butter knife to push out air bubbles from around the pears.

Wipe rims clean, apply lids and bands.

Process jars in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes (adjusting for altitude as needed).

Remove and let cool — you’ll hear that satisfying “ping” as the jars seal.

That’s it! Simple, sweet, and delicious!

detail of bartlett pear oil painting by Rebecca Luncan

From Orchard to the Art Gallery

What I love most about this process is how it connects to my studio practice. Just as I capture pears in jars for the winter, I’ve also captured them with paint in my still life paintings. Each approach preserves the fleeting beauty of the season in its own way.

If you’d like to see how pears have inspired my art, take a look at my Monthly Miniatures series, or visit my recent post: A Season of Pears.

And if you’d like more seasonal updates, stories from the studio, and first looks at new paintings, you can sign up for my newsletter here.

Pear Harvest at Home

It’s pear season at my house, and our Bartlett and Asian pear trees are giving us more fruit than we can count — definately over a thousand this year! The branches have been so heavy with fruit that keeping up with the harvest has felt like its own full-time job.

My picky 9-year-old’s favorite treat is canned pears, so I’ve been staying up until 1am many nights, filling jars for the winter. It’s a labor of love, and one that connects directly to the rhythms of the season and to our family traditions.

Curious how I preserve all these pears? You can find my Bartlett Pear Canning Recipe here ».

Miniature still life oil painting on aluminum of black capped chickadee, Chinese porcelain and bartlet pears by Rebecca Luncan — Coming in for a Landing, oil on aluminum, 5.5″ x 4.5″

Pears as Artistic Inspiration

Over the years, pears have also made their way into my artwork. Their subtle curves, warm colors, and varied textures are endlessly inspiring. From luminous green to the golden blush of ripening fruit, I’ve found that each pear has its own personality.

In this post I’ve gathered a few of my paintings that feature Bartlett pears, including a detail from one of my larger still lifes. These works celebrate the fruit not just as food, but as a timeless subject in still life painting. Like the Dutch masters, I love the challenge of turning something so familiar into something worth lingering over.

If you’d like to see how these pear paintings connect to my ongoing projects, I’ve also included pears in my Monthly Miniatures series.

Pears and Peacock Swallowtail Butterfly framed still life oil painting by Rebecca Luncan — Pears and the Emerald Swallowtail, oil on aluminum, 4.5 x 5.5

Art and Life Intertwined

As I’ve been canning late into the night, surrounded by the scent of pears and the sound of jars sealing, I’ve realized how naturally the cycles of my daily life overlap with my creative work. Harvesting, preserving, and painting all share a common thread: they ask for close attention, patience, and care.

Pears on the table and pears on the canvas — both are ways of preserving something fleeting.

If you’d like to follow along for future paintings and seasonal stories like this, you can sign up for my newsletter here.

REBECCA LUNCAN

Tag Archives: Harvest season

My Go-To Bartlett Pear Canning Recipe