SMALL portion of the nearly 30 pounds of pears "artfully" arranged prior to the great canning adventure. Tuesday evening my pastor called and one of the things he asked was if I could use some pears. His tree was loaded down, the branches touching the ground, and his wife had put up all the pears she wanted. Of course I said yes! My pastor brought over two large plastic grocery bags filled with pears. So pretty...but if I didn't do something with them, they would spoil before my guys and I could eat them. Over the years I have done some canning and preserving with one of my grandmothers and so I thought I could do it on my own. Pears in the process. You can tell I was already into the project... Of course I used the Internet to research recipes for pear preserves. I found one or two in some old recipe books, but was searching for other ideas. One of the ideas was for gingered pear preserves ,which called for crystallized ginger. Which means