I've got such a wonderful pear

[nineveh_uk]

It's been a fabulous season for pears. I assume that this is to do with the weather (drought-stressed trees giving their all for fruit?), but week after week even the most average bag from the supermarket has delivered fragrant, juicy pears that ripen and then do not immediately rot. I had some gorgeous Comice pears from the market last week that were enormous.

Anyway, I can't find the link that I had wanted to give and which the post title references* - all knowledge not contained on the internet shock! - so have the Eddie Izzard sketch.

Watch on YouTube

*It was a music hall(?) song from the days in which there were "comediennes", sung by a woman who was probably not Joyce Grenfell, in which she declaims at length how she has such a wonderful pair of eyes. They don't make 'em like that any more...

Comments

[antisoppist]

I've been complaining that this year's pears are arriving too juicy and icky sticky. I like a bit of crunch. But then Eldest likes them even crunchier than me and will eat them all before I find them edible. She also does this with nectarines. I am contemplating dividing all incoming fruit up into individual fruit bowls for people to eat their share at their ideal level of ripeness but it would take up space and I don't want rotting fruit in people's bedrooms.

(I have, however, also got 4 russet apples hidden in my bedroom).

[nineveh_uk]

The russet apples absolutely must be hoarded!

It is difficult to manage varying ripeness preferences when people are no longer younger enough that they have to ask you if they can have something.

[antisoppist]

Mum always said she had to buy an extra 2 lbs of apples a week when I came home from university so it is probably Fate getting its own back.

We haven't quite got to the labelled tupperware boxes in the fridge of the 4-adult houseshare but sometimes I see the attraction.

[nineveh_uk]

We had a two-orange daily limit each.

Ultimately it's all just a skirmish in the eternal battle of order vs chaos.

[aunty_marion]

It has definitely been a 'mast year' for fruit! A friend has made about 20lbs of quince jam and can't get the rest of the quinces off the tree (too high up), though there's enough for plenty more. I've had so many pears even the squirrels haven't gobbled them; I got a friend and her 6-foot+ son to come round and pick most of the ones I couldn't reach, and today the very last one dropped - into my garden, not next door's! - so I've processed the last batch. Peeled, chopped, and simmered in (NON-DIET!) lemonade, they keep a week or so in the fridge, and taste like tinned pears (only not tinny). I've been eating spiced pear crumble a lot...

[nineveh_uk]

That is a lot of quince jam! I've got a bowl of them in the fridge from antisoppist that I really must cook this week.

My sister has also had a glut of pears, though it not conveniently ,ocated to give me any fresh, alas. I think a lot have gone into the freezer in various forms. Spiced pear crumble does sound very nice.

[aunty_marion]

Pears, peeled, chopped, simmered in lemonade; then for crumbling, add some ginger (fresh, powdered, chopped stem, what have you) and maybe some ground mixed spice; add a little extra demerara sugar to the crumble mix with a teaspoonful (or as liked) of cinnamon, mix well, spread over pears, bit more dem. sugar on top. Cook in microwave or oven. Custard (or cream if you prefer) on top.

[joyeuce]

A friend of mine has been putting out appeals on Facebook for what more she can do with her bumper crop of figs:

"I’ve eaten them raw, frozen them raw, eaten and frozen them poached in honey and butter, eaten and frozen them poached in red wine, roasted them, whizzed them up into a fantastically viscous sauce, etc etc. This is the most prolific year the tree has ever known. I have to get to them before the starlings do. There’s an understandable limit to one’s consumption. I’m trying drying today. If they keep on coming I may try soaking them in brandy …" (Jam isn't an option for some reason.)

I only wish I was near enough to take some off her hands!

[nineveh_uk]

My goodness, what an enviable problem to have! Supermarket figs seem to have been better this year, but that's nothing in comparison to that kind of bounty. Alas that posting them is really not an option.

[glinda]

Passing through on the network page to say that I often end up poaching pears, as what generally happens is that I'll buy them one week, the ripen nicely and I'll really enjoy them and then I'll get another bag the following week and they'll sit there like hard lumps before doing the 'suddenly mush' thing the moment they ripen. (Also thanks for Eddie Izzard sketch I hadn't seen that one, and it gave me a much needed laugh!)

[nineveh_uk]

That second week after the first ones were good is all too familiar with pears. Apples get boring slowly, but pears - they're behaving and then, no! The entire bag will all be terrible. Poaching at least offers them a chance to redeem themselves!

[azdak]

Eddie Izzard is on top form there! I like my pears rock hard, so I don't buy them very often. I did once get given a basket of huge yellow pears from the tree in someone's garden that were an heirloom variety and unavailable in the shops. They were so delicious that I attempted to grow my own tree from the seeds (pips? Or is that only apples?) but they barely got past germination before expiring ostentatiously, Izzard-fashion, no doubt giggling at me as they went.

[nineveh_uk]

I love that Izzard sketch, it illustrates brilliantly the comic genius of making something out of a common experience that we'd never have expressed like that, but is so relatable when someone does.

I cannot abide a crunchy pewr, they must melt - but not be over. I think they are pips,and am sorry that yours proved ultimately fruitless.

[nnozomi]

I hope you have more delicious pears! (My mother, who does not like pears, tells a story about her grandmother trying to coax her into eating one as a child: "This is a special pear!" so "but it's a special pear" has been a family catchword ever since.)