77 Pears

I would like to start off first by apologizing for not writing more often. Having a full time job sure takes a lot of time out of life. However, I still look for fun things here in San Augustine to share. Thus, “77 Pears”. Yum!

I did not know there were so many pear trees here until they started sagging from the weight of all that fruit. I picked a few at Jeff's job site that were hanging over the fence and I could reach easily, figuring since they were hanging over the fence they were fair game. A week later we picked a few more. Then they started dropping on the concrete and smelling fermented. So Jeff and I stood on back of his truck and picked as many as we possibly could…. 77 in all. They melt in your mouth and are sloppy and juicy. I have since peeled and froze them to make fruit shakes, dumplings, and cobblers. I have to tell you that the most fun from this experience was picking them, not peeling them.

I am looking forward to going to a friend’s orchard this week and picking more. He shared his pears with me today at work and gave me directions to his place and said to pick all I want. He will have ladders waiting, plus it is fun to stand on the bed of our truck.

According to http://health.learninginfo.org/pear.htm pears have been around since the beginning of time and are mostly grown in China, Italy, and the United States (including San Augustine). They are a good source of vitamin K, C, copper, and fiber. Fiber and copper help prevent colon cancer. Vitamin C helps stimulate white blood cells to fight infections including bacteria and viruses. Sounds very nutritious as I suspected. It is best to eat let them sit on the counter and soften a bit and eat them unpeeled because a majority of the nutrients is in the peeling.