Pears coming out of my ears

   I am tired of pears and it still doesn't look like I have made a dent in them. I have pears drying and I have pear bread and I am swarming with fruit flies.....this is the last I have to say about pears.

Pear Chutney

   I found a recipe: Ginger-Pear Chutney. Relatively simple, used 5 pounds of pears, had currants in it and sounded good. So I got 5 pints of chutney plus a little extra. I canned the pints and will have the fresh for immediate consumption. Does it look like I made a dent in the pears?

   Note to self: do not stain your deck, make 7 quarts of chicken stock from scratch and process a batch of pear chutney all on the same day. Seemed like a good idea when I started the stock at noon, the deck at 3 and the pears at 5. I am tired and my right arm is very tired.......

Pear Heaven

   Two weekends ago the pears were ready to harvest at my boyfriend's house. He has several trees and they are loaded this year. We picked 6 five gallon buckets and didn't even make a dent. He sent 4 buckets home with me with the intention of giving 2 to my friend. I kind of had to force them on my friend. I called and told her I had 2 buckets of pears for her. Oh she said, let me think about it. Well I wasn't going to deterred. I showed up at her house and left them there.
   Some friends came down from Portland this weekend and we prepared dinner on Saturday night. Of course there needs to be dessert. Pears came to mind......Given that between us we have four 5 gallon buckets full that are starting to ripen. I googled around for pear pie/tart recipes. Nothing specifically jumped out so I just kind of made up the filling with a rustic shaped crust. Voila a beautiful pear tart appeared from the oven:

   So that used exactly 6 pears. This does not put a very big dent in the 5 gallon buckets. I had left my buckets in my garage and they were starting to rapidly ripen. So I laid them out on my dining room table and am on the hunt for a pear chutney recipe. I also will make pear bread (similar to zucchini bread). More later.

Love to Eat Paste

What does one do when you have an abundance of fresh Roma tomatoes from the garden (see today's harvest post)? One option is to make paste. It’s simple and takes a while. After rinsing the tomatoes, I cut them in half and throw in the pot with just a bit of water. Usually the rinse water is enough, don’t add much more than ¼ cup more. Bring to a low boil and turn down the heat to a simmer. The tomatoes will begin to break down. I cook them for about an hour this way. 

Then run them through a food mill. This instrument is really a must. It will churn the tomatoes into sauce with no skins or seeds. It can also be used to make seedless jam. Toss the sauce back in the pan and simmer for hours. 

The goal is to be able to pull a spoon across the paste and leave a trail with no water oozing to fill the trail back in. I fill small containers with the paste and freeze it. You can then pop the frozen paste into a big plastic bag and reuse the containers for more paste. 

In the winter when making hearty tomato based dishes there is nothing like a shot of homemade tomato paste to add late summer flavor. I am not opposed to store bought paste but the flavor is not as bright as homemade. But really is anything better than what you can produce from your own garden?

Today’s Harvest

Just a quick note: Here is what I picked today from my garden including the sunflowers. Dear lord, will the zucchini or cucumbers ever stop. I peddled them around to the neighbors tonight and even they wouldn’t take that many. It took 4 house calls to get rid of a good amount. I am making tomato paste as I write, more on that later.