Our Pear Tree

We have two edible fruit trees in our backyard - a pear tree and an apple tree. The pear tree produces many, many pears. The apple tree may produce about 30 apples if we are lucky, and I think that I overestimated!

Last year we were kind of learning what to do with so many pears and when to pick them. This year has been a lot of fun with our pear tree. We have read that pears are ready to pick off of the tree before they are actually ripe to eat - then they will ripen in a day or two on the counter. I must have over 50 pears in my kitchen right now! Every morning, I go outside to find pears that have fallen off of the tree during the night - some have been munched on by the wildlife, and others have not. So, I quickly place the "good ones" into my bucket, and the others get placed into a plastic bag and into the garbage can. This morning, I found 11 munched on ones and 7 good ones. Then, throughout the day, I am on a look-out for any others that have fallen, and try to "beat" the rabbits to this delicious fruit! Usually in the afternoon, we go out and check to see if more pears are ready to be picked.

So, today, my sister and her boys came over to pick some pears. Jeter and my sis enjoyed it the most - or for the longest time! Brady tried to pick one, but was not able to get it off of the branch - it was not ready to be picked yet. He did enjoy finding a munched on pear (which I placed on the patio - I thought out of his reach!) and squishing it in his hands until mommy came over and "ruined" his "fun"! He loves to get messy - but the animals that snacked on the pear could have diseases! So, he got a good hand washing! Barber got a little help from his aunt to get a pear off of the tree - he enjoyed picking a few pears, but then the swing set won his attention!

I am so thankful that we have this pear tree. It gives us a lot of tasty fruit, and it is also something fun that our kids can look forward to every summer. When I was young, we had a garden and it was fun to pick the vegetables - the weeding was not very fun, but I do not remember having to do it that often. So, although we do not have a garden at the moment, we do have a delicious pear tree that we can have some fun taking care of!

So, now I need to decide what delicious recipes that I am going to make...definitely Fresh Pear Crostata, maybe some pear butter (sister's idea), and I will have to search for a few others. If you have any ideas, I would love to have them!