For the Love of Pears

The farmer's market has been a treasure trove of fresh fruit. We have purchased four 20-pound boxes of pears from a Wenatchee area orchardist. For the first few days they have this vibrant green color.
We place them on newspapers in the cool, semi-dark basement and one week later they are this beautiful, ripe yellow. Some have a nice touch of salmon pink to their skin.
Then, it's peeling, paring, cleaning and packing. After about a half hour in the canner, we have some lovely fruit to enjoy later this winter.

I also had to spend part of the day "reprocessing" a batch of jelly that didn't set. I've never made jelly before on my own, we're usually the types to enjoy strawberry and raspberry freezer jam. But, this year I wanted to make jelly. The juice for this jelly is 50% sour cherry and 50% plum. It came out a really pretty color.
On a crazy side note, does anyone else think that once you halve a pear the seeds and core resemble popular drawings of aliens? Those little seeds look like their almond shaped solid colored eyes and the core is sort of tapered to the bottom like a chin. Too strange, or maybe I've been in the kitchen too long.