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View out of a side window, heavy with pears the branches are bending down on our pear tree. The trunk is propped up because its gone over to about a forty five degree angle partly caused by strong winds and partly just from the weight of pears on the branches. This from a tree bought from Woolworths twenty five years ago as a small sapling. Every year I marvel at the productivity of the plant. And looking out the window at them? Makes me proud of what you can do if you let nature take over.
Basically windfalls, five rough pears, two apples, three green walnuts and a single green tomato. The wind must have been blowing.
For the first time we have a good crop of apples on the main tree, the pear tree is bent over with pears that are growing slowly larger. The walnuts are being stolen by squirrels who bury them and the tomatoes are growing in a hanging basket and in a grow bag surrounded by other plants. They are all having to take their chances while there is less rain, but they are well established plants and I think the fruit trees have deep roots. We plan to do some pruning of the garden. The blueberries are gradually ripening, the gooseberries have all been eaten as have the raspberries. I saw no strawberries this year, but I think they have been shaded out by other plants. We even have redcurrants although I misidentified them as woody nightshade (not a good idea). Earlier in the year we had a small crop of cherries and we might get a few elderberries. So all in all not a bad year of fruit and veg.
A tasty morsel
A solid lump?
No soft and sweet
Moist and crunchy
It was a treat
It turned out good
Now I’m stuffed
With bread, butter and banana pud!
Too many plants in our garden. A lot of shrubs. There are probably bears in there (not), maybe hedgehogs and the squirrels are back and have started eating the walnuts from our tree which must be sixty foot high now.
A massive two trunked laurel Bush /tree robs a lot of the light, and holy bushes and a small eucalyptus are dotted about. The cherry trees are getting big and we have had to prop up the pear tree which is now laden with fruit. The wisteria is tangled up with the ivy on our kitchen and bathroom extention and a fig tree is growing there too. A few small olives appeared on the olive tree this year but didn’t grow big enough to crop.
Too much shade in the main garden so we are growing flowers in the back yard and on the pavement. We even (weirdly) have a couple of cabbages growing at the front!
I could crop this photo to tidy it up…but the bits of blue sky reflected off the sink and the red bowl, top left, seem to add interest. I have windows on both sides of the kitchen, dual aspect I think they call it? So I get lots of light in the kitchen on sunny days as the sun climbs higher in the sky.
Spring is coming, I can feel the warmth in the sunshine. The trees are about to come into leaf, buds of blossom will be bursting, pink and white clouds. I will have to get out and prune things like our buddliea bushes. They are thugs! And the pears? They remind me we should get our crop from our pear tree later in the year….
Cooked this tonight…
Ingredients :
3 small or 2 large pears
Shop bought pastry, ready rolled
1/4 bottle of port
Double cream
1 egg yolk
Method:
Core the pears as necessary, slice into small pieces.
Simmer the pears in a pan with the port until the pears have softened and the port has reduced and almost dried up.
Place the pastry on baking parchment or grease proof paper on a baking tray.
Cut the pastry into four squares, place the diced pears in the centre of each square and then fold the pastry up around them. Brush with egg yolk to glaze.
Put in a medium to hot oven (I used gas mark 6) for twenty or twenty five minutes or until they are golden brown. I found mine had a bit of a soggy bottom.
Serve when cooled with a dollop of whipped cream.
Serves four (unless you are feeling greedy!).
I made this today to use up some of the glut of pears and cooking apples we had in.
Ingredients:
1 large cooking apple
2 large pears, both sliced and de-cored
A knob of butter,
Lemon juice
Sweetener or sugar to taste
A little water
Shop bought ready rolled pastry
Egg to brush the top.
Method:
Butter a Pyrex glass dish or flan case.
Bakethe pears and apples with a bit of lemon juice and water, add a sprinkling of sweetener, or a tablespoon of sugar over the fruit. Gas mark 6 for twenty minutes in the middle of a heated oven.
Remove from the oven with oven gloves (it will be hot)
Add the ready made pastry to the top, cutting round the shape of the flan dish. Cut two small holes at the centre of the pastry and put the rest back on the fridge to use at a later time. Brush the top with egg and if you are using sugar sprinkle another teaspoon or so on top.
Cook in the oven again on gas mark 6 (just about a middle hot oven) for around twenty more minutes, till it goes golden brown.
Remove carefully from oven and place the flan case on a wire rack to cool. If using sweetener sprinkle it on the top now.
Serve and enjoy on its own or with custard, icecream or cream.
Note: ready made pastry will probably contain WHEAT unless otherwise stated. Always check for allergens. Egg and sweeteners may not be suitable. Use what is OK for you.
Enjoy x
Tasty but a bit too greasy.
I decided to make a pear cake with a couple of large pears off the tree. I didn’t have a recipe to hand so followed the one on the back of my bag of self raising flour.
The ingredients were:
150 grams each of self raising flour, butter and sugar.
Three medium eggs
A small amount of water
This was to make a Victoria sponge. I decided I would add raw sliced pears into the base of my glass flan dish (I don’t have a cake tin or grease proof paper).
Method. It said cream butter and sugar together till its light and fluffy, then add the eggs and a bit of water. Then gently fold the self raising flower in.
Problem. I can’t eat sugar. So I used sweetener that you can bake with. The amounts were questionable. 150 grams when you don’t have scales. So I guessed the amounts and I think I put about 200 grams in. The sweetener said 200 grams was five tablespoons, so I used four instead. Then the eggs? I used three, but they were large. Finally I guessed a mug full of flour would be about right….
I creamed the butter and sweetener together and made it softish and fluffy. Then I slowly added the eggs. The mix started to curdle. I tried adding a bit of flour and it started to look like undercooked scrambled eggs! I got my hand whisk out and tried to beat some of the lumps out. Then I folded in the flour, I made a batter, but still saw flecks of butter in the mix.
So I spooned the mix over the pears in a well greased Pyrex flan dish. I put the cake in the oven on gas mark 4 (medium heat) initially for thirty minutes. When I checked it, there were bubbles of gas coming out of it and it was still pale. So I put it on for another twenty minutes. The bubbles were still happening but the surface felt fim and was golden brown. When I tapped it, it sounded hollow, and when I pricked it with a knife that came out clean.
I eased the cake out of its case. Some of it broke up because it had stuck in the dish. It was greasy, but I cut a section out and it held its shape.
It tasted eggy but nice. The pears had cooked through.
Next time I might start making it with flour, then rubbing the butter into that till its like breadcrumbs, adding sweetener, then making a hole in the flour before adding the eggs. I wish I’d remembered that before I made this cake.
X
We bought the pear tree as a small sapling from Woolworths about twenty years ago. It’s grown since then and every year it has had a bigger crop of pears on it. This year there must have been fifty. The tree has tipped over because of their weight and possibly the wind, so we’ve had to prop it up. The bark is cracked and coming off in places, and it suffers from black spot, but the pears are delicious. Some of them rotted on the tree, possibly from being pecked by birds. We’ve got most of them off the tree now and are sharing some with friends.
Favourite chair in the garden, but gradually getting submerged into the garden….I’ve got a bit of concern because although these are really comfortable one has a slightly broken arm and the other one is a bit rusty in laces. I guess they will need oiling before the autumn rains set in.
This prompt was from the Band of sketchers group I’m in. I decided to add colour to the picture after drawing with black ink. It meant that I could add to the shadows and increase the contrast. I used some purple to intensify the shadow as my green permanent markers are drying up and I don’t have anything darker than a mid green/turquoise.
The shape of the chair is picked up with the angle of the branches beyond it. The branches curve up to where the pears hang down from the branches. They are still green but I added yellow and orange to make them show up better. The flowers at the bottom are mid purple Geraniums but again I didn’t have the right colour.
I’m pleased with the drawing. I might try something different soon though. I seem to be stuck in one style……
Mallaband-Brown