Thursday, July 30, 2009

26 Pears and a Bottle of Wine

The pear tree started telling us about a week ago it was ready to pop.
A few pears, mostly runts and many with bug damage, started falling off. Two or three a day.
Then, yesterday, we got two dozen pears, all beautiful and edible, on the ground.
Today we got 26.
There must be a thousand more to "harvest." (They will harvest themselves. Best fruit tree ever.)
Not all are ripe, but they ripen beautifully off the tree. Cold storage is your friend.
And cold pears for breakfast is my new friend.
Unless I want to have them for dessert, midday, with a little wine. (I don't know, Peter! Something Italian. Pinot Grigio; soaked with the flavor of roses!)
Those are people who dined, dined.

18 comments:

J-in-Wales said...

*Big heavy sigh*
Swap you for several kilos of blackcurrants?

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Pears steeped in wine, also most lovely served cool on a hot summer evening.

Chilebrown said...

Ms. Goofy and I are going to the market Sunday. Hopefully we will see you with clean hair! I may have some honey mustard for you.

Anita (Married... with dinner) said...

They were all my friends. And they dined.

cookiecrumb said...

J-in-Wales: That sounds like a great trade. Wish we could do it.

Mouse: Hah! Good idea. With just a dab of lemon curd underneath.

Chilebrown: I'll try to get there, dolling. I know Cranky will.

Anita: I've been on tenterhooks longer than I care to admit, hoping somebody (YOU) would come through! Sigh of relief. xxx

The Italian Dish said...

Luck you. Pears after dinner with slices of Pecorino cheese, drizzled with honey, is the best thing. (And I nice glass of ice wine).

cookiecrumb said...

Italian: Totally. Why do pears love pecorino so much? :)

kudzu said...

Do you issue hardhats to your guests these days? What a bounty!

cookiecrumb said...

Kudzu: It is totally a hardhat zone, although I just ordered a pair of garden chairs for under the tree. Might need a steel umbrella. Bean Sprout wisely avoids it.

Anonymous said...

I made pears in brandy for my Boyfriends Dad one year. He loved it so much he would only ration it out to us when we asked him to share. I used the small seckle pears (they were so pretty cut in half) but I bet your pears would be pretty tasty soaked in a little sugar and something sinfully alcoholic!!

cookiecrumb said...

Mimi: Oh, yum. My friends made *pear brandy* with my pears, by infusing some good local California brandy with fruit. Ya had to drink it up fast. Whimper!!
I haven't talked about this much, but we actually have two pear trees, the basic American stalwart, Bartlett, and a graceful Comice that only produces every two years. This is its year. Sigh.

Greg said...

Pears and wine works for me.I had pear wine one time and that definitely worked.

Anonymous said...

Well that certainly can't be a bad day!

Cheers,

*Heather*

Ms Brown Mouse said...

lemon & almond curd!

cookiecrumb said...

Greg: I managed to get a little alcoholic fizz from some fermented pear juice, but it was a LOT of trouble to get the juice (filtering and all; I think I need a press, not a juicer). Pear win? Sounds lovely.

Squirrelbread: Well, I guess there's nothing really wrong with being an unemployed bum. The pears are free!

Mouse: I googled almond lemon curd, and the fabulous Clotilde popped up first. Wow! Great idea.

cookiecrumb said...

Greg: Pear "win" = pear wine. Same thing.

auntjone said...

pears poached in cabernet sauvignon on a bittersweet chocolate tart is unbelievably good. i couldn't stay out of them and I didn't even think I'd like them. ah, culinary school. i miss those days and yet i don't.

cookiecrumb said...

AuntJone: What are they teaching you in culinary school, addiction? "C'mon, little girl, the first one's free." We've just about decided NOT to cook our pears this year; it's so much easier just to eat them au naturel.