One of the reasons I am not a great baker is because if a recipe doesn’t come out well, I don’t go back and try it again: I hate wasting anything, including ingredients. You can fudge cooking mistakes, but baking is more exact and less forgiving.
Another personality tidbit: I’m almost physically incapable of saying no to something that is free.
Last year, I saw an ad in the Cape Cod Times for free pears, so I immediately called the phone number. The woman told me about her over-producing pear trees, asked me how many bags I wanted, and gave me directions to her house.
I didn’t put a lot of forethought into this exchange, so I didn’t know that I expected those smooth and perfect Harry and David pears that you see around the holidays. I was surprised when I saw the little, lumpy, boulder-like fruit that she helped me load, but I thanked her and rode off in my sweet smelling, hornet-parade of a car.
I put some of them in a lovely wooden bowl in the middle of my table (and on the porch and under the chairs – there were a lot of pears) and waited for them to ripen. Because I had never worked with pears before, I didn’t realize that they were already workable. Almost overnight they turned from a seasonal centerpiece to an indoor composting project. I rescued the ones that I could, and made some really awful pear scones, and passable, but unremarkable, pear bread.
Last Friday my pear friend called me again. She had my name in her pear file, and wanted to know if I was interested in some more free fruit.
I could have found her house with a blindfold on; It smelled like fresh baked bread and pies. As I thanked her for remembering me, she kept hoisting bag after bag after bag of pears into my car. (Maybe she didnt want to make a lot of calls.)
Determined not to make the same mistake twice, I jumped right into pear prep. I prepped after yoga and through Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! I peeled my way through The Amazing Race, and was even a little late for my Monday morning meeting because I had pear work to do. It is now Wednesday, and my right hand is all red and blistery, my fingers are all pruney, but if you look in my basement and my freezer, you will see the results of a determined (manic?) food saver.
Note to Lucie and Kimberly: After we present our two new bags (yoga and mini bag) we might look into designing a recycled apple and pear picking bag.
