We were up late last night and we have a big mess to clean up, but we got the pear preserves finished! We cut up about 50 pears, and we have 9 pints and 22 half pints of preserves to show for it.
Also: what makes our preserves different, is a water bath needed for canning?, fall veg review, cutting down sunn hemp, refreshing the orchard, settling an argument about Lee’s tea.
Listen – 21:06
General Links:
The Longleaf Breeze Planting Database
My grandparents had one pear tree near Robinson Springs. Grits with homemade pear preserves was really great at breakfast. How did you get that much fruit?
We have four pear trees that we planted just this year; we have high hopes for harvesting our own pears from them in a few years, but none yet. We got about a bushel of pears from my brother Dave Gray, who has a killer orchard in Pine Level (south Montgomery County).
So you just had grits with pear preserves mixed in? Or did you also have biscuits?
Sadly, eastern NC is not hospitable to pear trees — except the ornamental Bradfords that are a visual plague.
My grandmother did make biscuits often, sometimes as the main course (butter & syrup) and sometimes alongside eggs or bacon/ham. I don’t recall biscuits and grits at the same meal, but I’m sure it happened. Memories of 1960-1966 are getting foggy. After I became a teenager, I spent less time on their farm.
Whenever I visit Montgomery, I buy a bottle of Yellow Label or Golden Eagle to bring back. They’re not sold up here.