Pear Party

Back in late July, Simon came over for a pear party. He climbed a ladder and picked a massive bucket full of beautiful little pears from the backyard pear tree. We may have been a little early for fully ripe pears, but we beat the squirrels and crows, so if they weren't totally ripe, it was still worth it to be able to do something with them besides pick half eaten ones up off the lawn.

We had purchased a Ball starter canning kit, and pulled a recipe for pear butter from the book that was included. Peeling and coring pound after pound of tiny pears was tedious.

The recipe turned out to be a bit too sweet--the sugar nearly covered the pear flavor. Still, the pear butter is nice on toast in the morning. Simon set aside some of the pear puree before it was sweetened, and turned it into a spectacular pear sorbet.

I also put a few pears to work in a bowl full of vodka. The pear-infused vodka was a big hit a few weeks later mixed with 7-Up and a twist of lime.

I cobbled together some loose instructions from the internet, which basically said to infuse vodka, put something in it and let it sit for a while. So I placed about six pears, sliced in half, into a glass container full of vodka and stored it in a dark place for a couple of weeks. I didn't refrigerate it. I think that worked out okay. When it was time to drink the vodka, I strained it through a coffee filter and funnel back into its original bottle.

And finally, we sent a bucket of pears home with Trevor, who is bottling pear beer this week! Looking forward to tasting the fruits of his labor as well!