September  30, 2016 – Oh!  The perfect pear.  Plus a bonus recipe.

          I adore the first pears of the season.  They remind me of a wonderful memory I have as a small child.  I was about 6 or 8 and it was late summer in New England.  

When I was a small child, my Grandparents on my Mom’s side lived on a farm in Littleton, Massachusetts, and it was simply called “The Farm”.  My Grampy was a jack of many trades including farmer, woodworker, and an excellent saw sharpener.  He was a tall, lanky man who wore glasses and had fine, mouse colored hair that he combed straight back from his forehead with a small toothed comb.

  He had many fingers missing from “electric table saw accidents”.   Out of his 10 fingers he had only 5 full ones left.   I remember as a child I would trace the ends of his fingers – up and down – they fascinated me.  He didn’t seem to mind – it all seemed so natural to me then and now.

Years ago my Mom gave me his 1939 diary.  There was a hurricane in New England in September of 1938 often referred to as the Great New England Hurricane and Long Island Express. During the following winter months many of the locals came to Grampy to get their saws sharpened.  Some entries from his 1939 diary:

“Took Sawyers’ saws back.  He paid me $1 for 2 axes and two saws sharpened.”

The next day’s entry: “Filed saws all day.”

Few days later on a Saturday:  “Earnest Robbinson brought a saw to file.”

That next Monday’s entry:  “We cut the apple trees along the walk next to Sheehans.  Took saw to Robbinson he liked the job.”

My Grampy had an old orchard on the hill behind the barn.  One Sunday afternoon on our visit, Grampy said, “I wonder if the pears are ripe yet. Come with me.” He held out his hand and I took it.  We walked up the hill behind the barn in the late tall summer grass to the old orchard.

Even though Grampy was tall, he wanted me along because the pears were just out of his reach.  He knelt down and hefted me up on his shoulders telling me to hold on tight.   He stood and walked under the pear tree and pointed to the pears he wanted me to pick. 

He soon discovered that at that age I didn’t know my “right” from my “left” very well.  [It hasn’t changed much; it seems I’ve mixed them up my whole life.]  But, we managed to pick some of the first ripe pears off that tree.  It was exciting – he would take the pears as I handed them down to him and then he would dip down toward the ground to deposit them on the soft grass and then straighten up and direct me to pick “that one over there – no up a bit, yes, that one.”  Even though he was three or four feet below me, he could tell by just the color or the way the pear hung on the tree which ones were ripe. 

After I had helped him pick a half dozen or more, we sat in the late afternoon sun on the hillside in the long grass.  Grampy choose the “perfect pear” for me.   I remember biting into that soft sweetness and, grainy texture.  The juice ran out of both sides of my mouth. Simply wonderful!

Every fall I look forward to my first pear of the season.  That first bite always transports me back in time to when I was that a child sitting on a hillside in the long grass under the pear tree with Grampy in the late afternoon sun.

My favorite pear recipe:

Not for the type of pear described above – but for those hard, brown Bosc pears

in the stores that you wonder how to prepare.

4 to 6 hard Bosc pears

2 teaspoons whole cloves

Raspberry Jam

2 oz. Grand Marnier or Drambuie liquor

Wash pears.  Core the pears from the bottom being sure to leave the stem and skin on.  In a steamer add 1 to 2 inches of water and the cloves.  Bring the water to a boil.  Set pears on steaming rack with their bottoms down.  Cover. Steam for about 20 minutes or until pears easily pierce near the bottom of the pear.  Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine 6 tablespoons of jam with 2 oz. of liquor.  Stir until smooth.  When the pears are done and are still hot, use an oven mitt to turn each pear bottom up and spoon the jam mixture into the cored cavities.  Then, prop each pear with the bottom still up in a custard cup or rocks glass so that the jam stays in the cavity. 

Allow to cool slightly before serving.  To serve, you very slowly turn a single pear on to an individual dessert plate. The warm jam mixture oozes out and puddles around the base of the pear.  Serve with delicate cookies and a salad fork and knife.  [If they cool too long, sometimes the jam won’t ooze out.  You just give them a warming in a microwave for 30 seconds.]

This is an excellent dessert for company.  When you steam the pears before your guests arrive, they will comment on how nice your home smells.