Pears

I noticed this morning, when I dropped by the house of my friend Margaret to pick up her son for work, that her pear trees are heavy with fruit and the pears are starting to get a nice blush on them, foreshadowing a ripe harvest come September. A couple of years ago Margaret, Bonnie (who lives across the street) and I decided we were going to be Earth Mothers and do mad and marvelous things with those pears, providing sustenance for our families and friends (not to mention Christmas presents). One Saturday morning in September, fortified by a pot of Godiva Liqueur-laced coffee and a jug of Bonnie's incredible Bloody Marys, we set to work.

Knives and Bloody Marys are never a good thing, but we somehow managed to avoid losing any body parts or blood in the processing of about 40 pounds of pears. In spite of the tonnage, we didn't even make a dent in the harvest, and it wore us out for two years. I do believe that we're going to tackle it again this year, but on a slightly less grandiose scale.

That first year, we enthusiastically made pear preserves, pear butter, pear chutney, and pear liqueur. We chopped and sweated and cooked and tasted and ended up with a lot of really great canned goods to keep, swap, and give as gifts. We were also exhausted, hot, and VERY sticky. I do believe we smelled of pears for days (hmmm, pear perfume -- we didn't try that).

This year we may just do the pear liqueur as it was reasonably easy and required NO cooking, although I might try the pear preserves again. The preserves didn't gel as well as they should have done, even though I had some lemon in the mix, but it had a wonderful flavor that was augmented by the addition of chopped crystalized ginger.

The liqueur was easy and delicious. Get some of the big 32-oz. canning jars. Put two pears, peeled, halved and cored in each jar. Add a piece of vanilla pod, a piece of cinnamon stick, a couple of cloves, and a cup of sugar to each jar. Fill with vodka or brandy, or vodka with a little bit of brandy added just for the hell of it. Cover tightly and store in a cool, dark place for a couple of months. Shake the jars every day or two for the first week or so until the sugar dissolves, and then leave it alone for a while.

Our timetable was from Labor Day weekend to Hallowe'en, just because we couldn't wait any longer to see how it tasted. We always get together at my house for Hallowe'en because my neighborhood is better for trick-or-treating (dense suburban housing), and we three would make tons of food and eat and drink while the dads took the kids out looking for candy. The kids are practically grown up now, but it's become a tradition for us to get together and enjoy the evening, and now the dads get to hang around the house too while the kids are out partying, and the kids will drift in and out to graze on the food in between attending the parties.

On that Hallowe'en evening we decided to see how the liqueur was progressing, and we opened a jar, strained it, and started sampling. The combination of flavors is quite delicious and will [INSERT WARNING LABEL HERE] make you completely forget that you are basically drinking straight vodka (or brandy). The next time we were smart and used small liqueur glasses instead of wine glasses. Lesson learned. The well steeped pears, chopped with a little liqueur and a few chopped walnuts, made an excellent ice cream or crepe topping.

I bought lovely glass bottles and stoppers from World Market and created a very personal handmade Christmas gift of the liqueur for several friends. (Would've had more if we hadn't opened that second jar on Hallowe'en, but it was worth it!) Since there's so much flavoring added, you don't have to buy top end vodka or brandy for this recipe, unless you feel strongly about it.

One of these days I would like to try the whole fermentation-to-make-homemade-wine-or-brandy routine, which a dear old friend of ours in England used to do with great results, but that will have to wait until I have more time to concentrate on the scientific process. Right now, I'm just having fun!