Did you know pears are sneaky? I’m talking ninja levels of stealth. It’s compounded when the weather is complicit in the sneakery. Well the pears tried their best to ambush me this year. Little did they know that 18 years of momming prepared me for just such an attack.
The spring was wet-ish and early summer was crazy dry, like my garden just about died when we were in Utah. I didn’t have much hope for anything in my orchard. I was right about the figs, they were awful. Pears though? They were amazing. Tons and tons of pears. They overran the kitchen and fridge for three solid months. Peaches squeeze their way in and we went without a kitchen table. Finally the apples took pity on me and just gave a mediocre yield. They only took up a few square feet of kitchen floor space.
My darlings helped me pick and more importantly were beautifully photogenic (as always). My husband pretended not to notice the invasion of the kitchen with his usual grace and snark. Love him so much. Slowly and surely we ate and canned our way through the bounty of the orchard and now I can again tell people how grateful I am for my orchard. I did grumble about it for a bit.

I did all the usual things, canning slices and making jam. Some new things were added this year, though, my favorite being a very British “Autumn Chutney”. It had eleventy billion ingredients including peaches, pears, apples. Perfect for blasting through all the fruit on my table. A classic pear tart made an appearance and ridiculous amounts of various fruit butters. We’ll be eating Fall straight through till next spring. Good thing it’s the best flavor there is.