I think of pears as a cold-weather treat. Sitting alongside apples in my kitchen fruit bowl, their sturdy green and red shapes just say “winter” to me. After all, didn’t we just finish singing about partridges in a pear tree?
Georgia pears are really more an early fall fruit. Greg Brown of Greenleaf Farm in Barnesville harvested pears for about six weeks beginning in August. The pears in the market now are coming to us from the west coast.
Pears are not a major crop for us in the Atlanta area. Fire blight is a bacterial disease that flourishes here and makes it tough for us to grow a reliable commercial crop. The Kieffer pear is the one exception. This old-time variety can be found on farms from Texas to Georgia and produces a pear with firm, grainy flesh.
Brown isn’t sure of the variety of his three mature pear trees. They were on the property when he bought it. But this year he harvested about 150 pounds of pears each week for six weeks, taking them to market at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market, East Atlanta Village Farmers Market and the Decatur Farmers Market. He can be found at the Decatur market on Wednesdays and Saturdays now that the other markets have closed for the season, but he won’t have any pears available. They’re gone for the year.
“Our customers love our pears. We sell them to people who want to bake with them, but also to people who use them for fresh juice,” Brown said. Because his pears are certified naturally grown, they may have a spot or two. The ones that aren’t pretty enough to sell at market are used in the Brown kitchen where he and his wife Maeda bake with them or preserve them as chutneys and other treats.
Chances are good that while they’re cooking those pears, Brown will be singing the verse from Joni Mitchell’s 1970 hit, “Big Yellow Taxi”: “I don't care about spots on my apples, leave me the birds and the bees.”
Unripe pears will hold in your refrigerator for up to a week. To ripen them, leave them out at room temperature for a day or two. Don’t refrigerate a ripe pear; it will turn to mush immediately.
At local farmers markets
For sale
Vegetables and nuts: African squash, arugula, Asian greens, beets, broccoli, broccoli raab, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chard, collards, dandelion, endive, fennel, herbs, kale, leeks, lettuce, mizuna, mushrooms, mustard greens, onions, parsnips, pecans, peppers, potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnips
From local reports
Rum-soaked Pears
These pears can be served right away, but the longer they sit in the rum, the more alcohol they’ll absorb. Serve the pears whole with whipped cream, or slice them and serve over ice cream or pound cake, drizzled with the rum syrup. Any leftover syrup would make fabulous winter toddy.
Hands on: 20 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Makes: 6 rum-soaked pears
6 small pears (about 1 3/4 pound)
4 cups water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cinnamon stick
5 cardamom pods
1 cup rum
Peel pears carefully, leaving stem on.
In a large saucepan, combine water, sugar, cinnamon stick and cardamom pods. Bring to a boil. Carefully add pears, and reduce heat to simmer. Cook pears until just tender, about 15 minutes. Remove pears from liquid with slotted spoon and put into two wide-mouth canning jars. (I used one quart jar and one pint jar.) Divide rum between jars.
Return sugar mixture to a boil and cook until mixture is reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Pour over pears in jar. Seal jars and shake lightly. Store in refrigerator up to three months.
Per pear: 180 calories (percent of calories from fat, 3), trace protein, 35 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, trace fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 1 milligram sodium.
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