Thanks! I had done a search but all I got was posts about people afraid they'd lose their Bradford Pear blossoms to late freeze!! I appreciate your help. Edie

While a power interruption of a few hours isn't of great consequence to people with a freezer ... longer periods can be rather hair-rising. I've thought that it might be good idea for people where they have power interruptions from time to time to gather a group of, say, four to six or so, to share in buying a generator, possibly of somewhat better quality and capacity than one person would wish to, alone, to move from house to house when the power is out, to keep the food in the freezers intact. Some people where I visited with a generator wanted me to fire up their furnace, but most have an unbreakable connection to the power box and I was unwilling to risk the possibility of the main switch getting reconnected inadvertently, thus pushing power back out on to a line that the linemen understood to be dead, possibly with drastic consequences. Where codes allow, I think that it would be advisable for people to have a push-and-twist connection between the power box and the furnace. When the power is down for an extended period, most people are not going to their place of employment, so would be free to move the generator from member's house to member's house during the day and night ... or even to help an outsider, should they so choose. It would be necessary to have at least one member who had an establishment large enough to store the generator without its being a nuisance. Such a plan would provide cheap insurance for people with a substantial amount of expensive food in their freezers ... and have you noticed how the price of that food has escalated in recent times ... while the wage increases earned by most ordinary workers have been much more ... meagre? Does anyone foresee a substantial change in that scenario, any time soon? ole joyful

This is one of those situations where you have to decide on the level of risk you are comfortable with. The guidelines would strongly recommend the under-processed jars this old (beyond 24 hours and especially 5 weeks old) be disposed of intact without opening. This is because of the safe presumption that botulism toxin has developed in the contents and out of concerns for contamination of other surfaces during the attempt to salvaging the contents. Identifying and Handling Spoiled Canned Food That's the official position. The choice is yours as to whether to follow it or not and any MFP is required to advise you to do so. Just be very careful doing whatever you decide to do. So all I can add is that some of your rationalizations will hold up to safe scrutiny, others that you mention don't. mold is not the issue 2 .botulism toxin has no odor or appearance change 3. It is true that the toxins can be destroyed with 10-15 mins. of boiling but the spores themselves are not so the food is not sterilized. 4. Only pressurized cooking/canning will kill the spores themselves. 5. Some foods would deteriorate by further pressure cooking/canning but this is a particular food which would not be harmed in any way by reprocessing. 6. Freezing does not neutralize either toxins or the spores much less kill them, only pressure can do that when done before freezing. So read the above linked guidelines and make a well-informed decision. Dave

Barb - while this is not what you are asking, I thought I'd mention it. I learned while working with an orchard that pears actually ripen off the tree. If I remember correctly, some varieties benefit from cold storage too - like refrigerate the pears for a week or so, then take them out and leave them on the counter. They should soften up and ripen to a wonderful, juicy pear. This link might help. http://www.pickyourown.org/pearpickingtips.htm