Pear Harvest Time

One of the red pears

It's that time of year again, the orchard fruit are fat and ripe or nearly so. The apples outnumber the pears, the latter being favorites. The pears do not store well, but I'm not going to can any. Yes, my 'country gal' persona ends where the real work begins. 

My first year on Flown Piggies Farm lots of pear desserts were made, and yes, many lbs were gained. (Oh shut up, you'd have gone nuts with a glut of fresh fruit too!). Last year, 2021 the pears and apples fell from the trees so fast - literally overnight - that not a single piece of fruit was enjoyed, except by my neighborhood's population of chubby deer. 

Flown Piggies Farm boasts 3 pear trees. The closest tree to my house has  Bartlett type pears. They might be Anjou pears but would not a pear by any other name still taste like one or the other? 

The second pear tree is itsy bitsy at perhaps 10 feet tall, and it bears small red pears - which are my favorite. This year the dinky tree yielded a whopping seven pears!  To be fair to the tree, it being so small, it is possible that many of its fruit were taken early on by deer, who stand on their hind legs like trained poodles, and pluck fruit. Stupid deer. 

The massive Bosc Pear Tree, sans Partridge

The third pear tree is around 20 feet high and has what I am 99 44/100% sure are Bosc pears. The fruit are brownish gold, large, fat and they have skinny necks. The Bosc are a week or two, if not three

weeks from ripening. There's no clue what to do with them when they do ripen. The tree has hundreds and hundreds of fruit on it. I do know they are the preferred pear for fancy desserts like pears poached in wine. I can feel my jeans tightening just thinking about it. 

And more Bosc...

                                                                                                                                                            I'm bummed that pears can not be stored in the manner of apples. Apples you buy in grocery stores may be as old a year. And pioneers used to be able to store fresh apples in cold cellars, but pears are not so obliging. My neighbor Nita decided that the crop of 2022 was not going to go to waste. She has her own pear tree but it is a couple of weeks behind my trees in fruit ripening. 

Nita picking the bartlett pears

Nita brought over her orchard ladder and and we (OK, mostly she) picked a nice load of pears. 

I picked all the red pears off the little tree and soon we were hauling a big box of bartlett pears into my kitchen. 

The pears are lined up for ripening, one precious globe at a time. 

Ready for drying

A number of pears were ready to go and Nita again came to the rescue. She loaned me one of her dehydrators as well as a slicer (a mandolin) and we set to work, slicing up the ripest pears and settling them on the dehydrator trays. Thanks to the mandolin, we also each in our own kitchens, sliced up our thumbs. Ouch!

Below is a bowl of the resulting dried pears. They look ghastly in the picture, but they are sweet and tasty. I currently have a zillion or so bags of dried pears. I've practically handed them out to whomever comes within a quarter mile of my home. Gotta get that fruit eaten before next year!

Dried pears which resemble dried ears (I know... EEEW!)

A Pleasant Sunday with Family and Back to Denver

 

My Aunt and my Cuzzies at the golf course against the Denver Skyline

A full day in Denver was planned for Sunday and we made a wonderful day of it. It started with some family chat time on the front porch. I discovered I have at least one cousin who is addicted to the New York Times Spelling Bee. 

Tom, Jonni, & siblings Eric & Yvonne

 

Then we were off for breakfast at the Denver Public Golf Course. 

 

Once full of coffee and filling breakfast foods, we had a special local in mind. Cousin Yvonne did her homework before arriving in Denver. She read about an African American owned coffee shop, the Whittier Cafe and we headed there to enjoy some additional liquid eye opener, with perhaps, a dollop of cream.

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The little shop had a surprise - an Ethiopian coffee ceremony was scheduled for today. One of the reasons for the ceremony is to welcome guests. We were ready to be welcomed! So in we went - our Carter luck revealed the traditional ceremony had just begun. Soon we were each clutching a warm or cold cup of beverage and settled down to watch a young, Ethiopian born woman perform the Coffee Ceremony.

The gist of the ceremony is the pouring of hot water over beans, and there is a progression of three times in which water is poured onto the original coffee grounds. The first brewed pot is STRONG. With each of the additional brewing, the coffee is progressively smoother. After each of the 3 brewings, the young lady poured coffee into sampling cups and passed out the samples to her eager audience. 

The ceremony certainly gave feelings of friendliness and inclusion, and in that light, the Carter family chatted among themselves and with other customers watching the ceremony. And the coffee samples? Delish! Each round of coffee was notably different from the preceding round. 

The Mural

The last round of coffee served up is called 'Baraka'. That final round of coffee is considered a blessing and is known as the “one for the road”. So having had our 'one for the road' we prepared to leave, but first we requested the young lady join us for photo op in the outdoor dining area of the shop. 

Alas, the end of our Carter Colorado Pop-up Reunion is nigh, for tomorrow we all head home. We had a lovely time cousins! Can't wait to do it again. 

A Tractor, a Tale and Wagging Tails

 Another gorgeous day in Colorado with my family. For starters, several of us lolled about on the ranch house's front porch. All were tickled to see a dust cloud in the distance which turned out to be Cousin Jonni, driving herself along the road in one of Tom's Aunt Judy's farm vehicles. Jonni had the company of 2 of Aunt Judy's friendly Border Collie dogs. We had fun fussing over the pups.

Tom, and Jonni-ann with her pup companions

But suddenly the dogs jumped off the porch, bulleting down the road. David said they must have heard Judy's car coming, but nope! It was Judy alright but she was driving her HUMONGOUS green tractor carrying a round bale of hay with Cousin Charlaine as her co-pilot. 

Judy, Charlaine and doggos, headed for the porch

None of us had any idea what a treat we were in for. Judy had rummaged her files back at the ranch. She chose poetry inspirationally written by Tom's grandfather. The poem told the tale of Tom's grandfather, out checking three cows, who had birthed their three calves, all in the deep snow of a winter blizzard. I wish I had the poem to post here, which contained true cowboy humor. 

It was like watching one of those CBS Sunday Morning reports which are so beautiful that I feel sad that I wasn't there to soak it up. But here I sat, live, in person, enjoying the sensations of poetry as it washed over me, setting me down in a snow coated rangeland, blinking as snow flakes landed on my eyelashes, and the moos of livestock serenading my ears. Yeah, that was heaven.

Judy, the Williamson family historian

The rings on the coasters are beautiful

As if all that wasn't gift enough, Judy had risen early that morning, and set to sawing segments of the ranch's ancient & aged fence posts into slices. Everyone got a set of the beautiful ringed tree, drink coasters. 

That was the best of the day in my opinion. After Judy's visit the whole fam got busy packing and making at least some effort to leave the ranch house in good shape. There was some disturbing news, concerning Tom's father which had us on tenterhooks on the drive back. Tom's dad had suddenly taken ill, to the degree that Tom's sister was flying in from out of state. We all worried along with Tom and hoped he and his sister would be able to handle the crisis and that their father should survive it as well. Family means having to handle such crises and we know Tom and his sister are up to the task.

Back in Denver we all had quiet - or as quiet as we manage to be - evening.  For dinner we all ordered pizza at a v. close restaurant and some of the more energetic cousins (yeah, not me) walked over and picked up the orders for all of us. We had a lovely dinner, loads of chatting and happy anticipation of tomorrow's activities.