turn of the season: medicinal pears

i had this idea while picking the pears at mom's house in mt shasta, and they have since ripened and been sitting in the refrigerator while i considered what it would take to actually get it done. i knew that i couldn't conceivably eat a box full of pears before they spoiled, and that i should probably can them, but i don't really like the taste of canned pears so i had myself a dilemma about what to do with them. the only real association i have with canned pears is that the woman i worked as a waitress for in high school used to feed her son canned pears when the seasons changed to prevent him from getting sick. i have no idea if her practice was based in any kind of medicinal tradition, but it made me think that maybe i should can the pears and make a kind of keep-you-healthy-as-the-weather-turns tonic with them. my recent experience with being sick last week cemented the idea. i figure, if biotech companies can genetically insert pharmaceuticals into our foods, why shouldn't i try my hand at it?
my approach is a little different. only because i don't have the tools for gene-splicing in my kitchen, yet. i called up my herbalist friend jonah and asked him about other plants that are traditionally used for the same sort of purpose: immune system boosting during weather shifts. he suggested elderberries and some warming things like cloves and ginger. i acquired some dried elderberries and stewed up a pot of them with water, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and a little honey - what could be bad? usually pears are canned in a sugar syrup, but that seemed both gross and unhealthy to me, so i hope my medicinal tea will work just as well. they say you can also just can pears in water, so i figure it'll be fine on the safety front if not the taste front.
i chopped up the pears into chunks that fit better into the randomly sized jars i have left over from other canning projects, and boiled them for a minute in the medicinal tea while steralizing the jars. according to the internet, canned pears need to process in their water bath for at least 20 mins, which seemed to work just fine - all the jars sealed tightly and are now ready for consumption when the weather turns nasty here in oakland. haha.
if you're one of my cold-climate-inhabiting friends who doesn't find that joke funny let me know and i'll mail you a pear care package. you'll have to do it before the weather turns, though, this is preventative medicine.