Well, it's been a while! What can I say except that things got away from me. I visited family in November, my mother visited for 3 weeks in December, plus I had to deal with the 8 weeks long chest cold from hell.
My chief culinary accomplishments of late fall and early winter include:
PEARS: My friend George forwarded me a note from a community list along with a photo of a gorgeously laden and tempting looking pear tree. I harvested about 30+ lbs of small pears which seemed quite hard, along with my friend Veronika. The location was near Oakland's Chinatown, so while we were back there, some neighbors came by and also harvested some pears. V and I thought they were kind of firm but one lady bit into it and said they were good.
The pears were small, a bit mealy and very hard. They had a yellow-green skin under a brown layer that scraped off with light application of fingernail or nylon scrubby pad. I washed all the pears and laid them out to ripen on trays. And waited. And waited. After 2 weeks, some of them just went mushy, so I did some research.
What I discovered is that there are some old varieties of pears that are only for cooking - I think these pears were Kiefer pears. So, I poached some pears and they came out so amazingly delicious! I canned the rest of the pears in several batches - some with light syrup and some with light syrup and spices (clove, cinnamon, star anise). I'll be set for a while for canned pears, I promise some lovely pear photos.
PEAR VINEGAR: As Marilee from Urban Legend Cellars said, "folks don't know how EASY it is to make vinegar!" I put a big pile of pear peelings and cores into a gallon glass jar with distilled water - and I keep adding water and aerating it. It's now growing a mother on top - just like kombucha or Bragg's apple cider vinegar! Soon I will get up the nerve to taste my pear vinegar. Expanded post with pictures coming soon.
GROUND CHERRY JELLY: the ground cherries kept going long after everything else quit. The one Giant Ground Cherry plant I got from Annie's is still going out there - and I hope to promote those for the next season over the smaller kind. I made up 12 half pints of jelly but it didn't set as firmly as I want, so the jars are still on the kitchen windowsill waiting to be remade (or poured over pound cake and ice cream, tough call).
PERSIMMONS: In early November, I made my annual harvest of persimmons from Larissa & Geoff's 3 story high Hachiya persimmon tree. After I picked about 200 persimmons in early November, left them to ripen while I was gone for a week - and ripen they did! Then I and dried them all - with some pulp in the freezer as usual. I made two giant trays of persimmon bread pudding for Holly & Marina's wedding reception - it was very well received and there were no leftovers!
SOURDOUGH: I took a Sour Flour class just a few days into the onset of the Horrible Chest Cold from Hell - and had mixed results with the starter (it eventually died). I plan to get some starter from a neighbor named Ana.
GARDEN - Veggies vs Flowers: no, I did not manage to get my winter greens garden in properly this year again. However, I did manage to keep alive my digitalis purpura and put it in the ground, along with some jasmine and a 2-stick rose plant - so there will be lovely scented flowering things along the fence in my garden. The brugmansia that I got as a leafless wine barrel size root ball from Freecycle is flourishing in the side yard and sending up leaves and new growth, fingers x'd that I will have some lovely scented angel trumpets in the spring.
The broccoli di cicco has gone feral and seems to be flowering continuously - an attack of little grey aphid-y things on the broccoli, mustard and broccoli rab volunteers makes them inedible but I am leaving the large stand of broccoli di cicco because it seems to be making the honeybees very happy. Once my other flowering plants start producing flowers, I will tear it out to make space for tomatoes.
What I love about my neighborhood is that you get random curb scores - I got a paper grocery sack half full of rhizomes labeled "FREE!" Purple and light blue irises!" which are going into the ground along the house by my steps this week.
Wow! And here I thought I hadn't done much - it turns out I've just been a lazy blogger! I promise to make it up to you, the one reader who still checks in on my blog occasionally (hi Aunt Sue!) and some backdated posts that I obviously owe are coming this week!
Showing posts with label pears. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pears. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Friday, October 28, 2011
Pears!
In the first week of October, a friend forwarded an e-mail to me with a photo attached of a pear tree about to break under its own weight. I made arrangements and arrived at the warehouse space near Jack London Square to investigate - the pears were different from other pears I have seen - dark brown on the outside, like a sunburn that scratches off, to a light green underneath. The pears were hard and either under-ripe or just not dessert pears - but there were a lot of them so I set to work harvesting.
I poached two dozen of them the next day, and set rest out on trays in single layers to ripen - and a week later, still not ripe, I did some research and found an interesting article on Kieffer Pears.
I think that the tree is possibly a Kieffer Pear - not so great for eating raw, but excellent for canning. The pears are usually ripe in October, just as hard as they were back in July, and the trees often grow so tall that most people can't pick all the fruit easily.
However - the pears lack the sort of rusty stipple - but look more like Passe Crassane in the picture here: http://www.frenchgardening.com/tech.html?pid=1139483932219159
An interesting tip I picked up from these articles is that you should not store any of the pears too close to tomatoes or other fruit while you're letting them ripen - the esters will cause the softer fruits to speed up too much and get moldy (I realized this with some tomatoes that were on the table with the pears!).
After about three weeks of ripening indoors - some of the pears turned into little squishy spore bombs, so I decided it was time. I decided to do a batch of canned pears in light syrup with vanilla and a batch of pickled pears (apple cider vinegar & spices). I still have 3 trays of pears with blemishes and am going to make some pear chutney - and then maybe I'll try my hand at chow-chow since I have some green tomatoes!
Canned Pears
I poached two dozen of them the next day, and set rest out on trays in single layers to ripen - and a week later, still not ripe, I did some research and found an interesting article on Kieffer Pears.
I think that the tree is possibly a Kieffer Pear - not so great for eating raw, but excellent for canning. The pears are usually ripe in October, just as hard as they were back in July, and the trees often grow so tall that most people can't pick all the fruit easily.
However - the pears lack the sort of rusty stipple - but look more like Passe Crassane in the picture here: http://www.frenchgardening.com/tech.html?pid=1139483932219159
An interesting tip I picked up from these articles is that you should not store any of the pears too close to tomatoes or other fruit while you're letting them ripen - the esters will cause the softer fruits to speed up too much and get moldy (I realized this with some tomatoes that were on the table with the pears!).
After about three weeks of ripening indoors - some of the pears turned into little squishy spore bombs, so I decided it was time. I decided to do a batch of canned pears in light syrup with vanilla and a batch of pickled pears (apple cider vinegar & spices). I still have 3 trays of pears with blemishes and am going to make some pear chutney - and then maybe I'll try my hand at chow-chow since I have some green tomatoes!
Canned Pears
- 4 quarts & 1 pint canned pears, plain
- 8 qts & 3 pints canned pears, with vanilla
- 1 qt & 9 pints pickled pears
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Squash, pears & lemons!
This morning I started to feel a return to the normal rhythms of summer after being laid up following knee surgery - yeah, I sure know how to have fun! My friend James gifted me some giant squash last weekend and I admit - I blinked - some of my cocozelle got really enormous. But having 20# of overgrown squash in the kitchen doesn't present enough of a challeng.
This morning, I borrowed a friend's truck and headed off to pick pears & lemons at someone's house in Kensington. The pears are small and green, falling easily off the tree - none are really ripe yet so I don't know how they will taste. The lemons were offered while I was busy picking pears - and they are round, soft ripe Meyer lemons that smell positively gorgeous.
On the way home, I stopped at the Temescal Farmer's Market and ran into Asiya from ForageOakland - I hustled her to the parking lot to load her bag with pears & lemons - we had a nice chat about her blog (go check it out!) and caught up a bit. James took a few pears and lemons on Sunday, and more are promised to Veronika later this week. Time to go plan some preserving projects & check in on my garden!
This morning, I borrowed a friend's truck and headed off to pick pears & lemons at someone's house in Kensington. The pears are small and green, falling easily off the tree - none are really ripe yet so I don't know how they will taste. The lemons were offered while I was busy picking pears - and they are round, soft ripe Meyer lemons that smell positively gorgeous.
On the way home, I stopped at the Temescal Farmer's Market and ran into Asiya from ForageOakland - I hustled her to the parking lot to load her bag with pears & lemons - we had a nice chat about her blog (go check it out!) and caught up a bit. James took a few pears and lemons on Sunday, and more are promised to Veronika later this week. Time to go plan some preserving projects & check in on my garden!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Pear Vanilla Vodka
Today I decanted the green pear infused vodka -- the jar that had half a vanilla bean and four allspice berries in it? I just want to say "YUM" -- I put some into a flask with about a tablespoon of maple syrup and it makes a very delicious, fruity liqueur. I may try agave with this as well, before serving.
YIELD:
1 750 ml bottle pear-vanilla fruit brandy
YIELD:
1 750 ml bottle pear-vanilla fruit brandy
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Pears, Brandies and Lemons
BIG FRUIT DAY today - I cut up a bunch of Asian pears and green pears and set up two half-gallon jars to infuse with the fruit. I went up to Regan's house and picked a ton of lemons, in all their lemony glory:
Next, I quartered green pears and sliced up Asian pears, dipped them in lemon juice and put them out in the solar dehydrator. I had to work fast - it was getting late and I wanted to take advantage of as much heat of the day as possible.
FRUIT BRANDY: After getting the fruit out in the solar dehydrator, I decanted the fruit brandies -- a half gallon jar of apricots (and pits) and another jar of those gorgeous Santa Rosa plums and ginger spent about six weeks in vodka.
My friend Eric had recommended leaving the pits for the apricot infusion, resulting in a complex apricots and almonds scented infusion. The apricots held their form pretty well and only diluted the 750ml bottle of vodka by a cup or so.
The Santa Rosa plums nearly completely broke down into mush - James helped with filtering the brandies in the jelly bag and with a complicated system of wire mesh filters, and we still ended up with about a bottle and a half of liqueur -- it diluted by about 50% because of the break down of the plums. Both taste delicious -- the apricot infusion doesn't require any sweetening, but the plum-ginger is a bit tart.
DRYING: At the end of the day, we took the fruit out of the solar dehydrator. The fruit hadn't really dried much, and the oven thermometer showed that the temperature inside was about 115 or 120. That's not quite not enough.
Next, I quartered green pears and sliced up Asian pears, dipped them in lemon juice and put them out in the solar dehydrator. I had to work fast - it was getting late and I wanted to take advantage of as much heat of the day as possible.
FRUIT BRANDY: After getting the fruit out in the solar dehydrator, I decanted the fruit brandies -- a half gallon jar of apricots (and pits) and another jar of those gorgeous Santa Rosa plums and ginger spent about six weeks in vodka.
My friend Eric had recommended leaving the pits for the apricot infusion, resulting in a complex apricots and almonds scented infusion. The apricots held their form pretty well and only diluted the 750ml bottle of vodka by a cup or so.
The Santa Rosa plums nearly completely broke down into mush - James helped with filtering the brandies in the jelly bag and with a complicated system of wire mesh filters, and we still ended up with about a bottle and a half of liqueur -- it diluted by about 50% because of the break down of the plums. Both taste delicious -- the apricot infusion doesn't require any sweetening, but the plum-ginger is a bit tart.
DRYING: At the end of the day, we took the fruit out of the solar dehydrator. The fruit hadn't really dried much, and the oven thermometer showed that the temperature inside was about 115 or 120. That's not quite not enough.
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