"There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat." Ralph Waldo Emerson
We have two pear trees in our yard and harvesting and processing pears is a new experience for us. We're learning about them as we go along. We have learned that pears (European, that is, not Asian) should not ripen on the tree. They ripen from the inside out and by the time they start to give a little on the outside, they might be bad in the middle. So knowing when to pick, how much to let them ripen on the counter, all the while watching for growing bad spots is still somewhat baffling to us. However, as luck would have it, we have a good crop this year to experiment with. Below are some of our endeavors.
 |
| The trees have been limbed up over the years for easy mowing under them, so there are very few pears we can pick standing on ground. We've been using ladders and an apple picker, but there are still many we can't reach. |
 |
| We have been picking from the tree or from the ground every couple of days and then bring the pears inside to ripen some more. |
 |
| We have been cooking some to make pearsauce. |
 |
| Some of which we've shared, some we have eaten, some we have frozen... |
 |
| and some of the sauce we have made into pearbutter. I did this in the crock pot which was much easier than the long hours of stirring over a stove when I was younger. |
 |
| Some of the pears were dehydrated into sweet snacks. |
 |
| and some were baked into a pie |
 |
| And a pear-blueberry crisp. |
 |
| We aren't the only ones enjoying the pears. The bees, flies, deer and squirrel are feasting daily on them. |
Tomorrow, I think I'll make another batch of pearsauce. That seems to be the favorite so far.
