The Pear Harvest

There is a very old pear tree outside the kitchen door. Very old. In the last 40 years, Martha and I mostly ignored it except to rake up the fallen pears that the squirrels and birds hadn't eaten.

The pears are small and hard. This year I cleared all the brush and heavy vines from in and around the tree. It has produced a bumper crop for a very old, fairly small tree. The pears are Seckel pears. These trees were first introduced in 1800 and soon became a household staple.

The pears last well into the winter. They are not for eating but for baking. Because they last so well, a family with one of these trees could bake the fruit at a time when few neighbors would have had any fruit at all.

I have put this first harvest, about eight lunch bags full, in the root cellar to ripen. I'll let you know what happens.