Pear Drops....

Weather: Horrible! Max temperature 15C Heavy Rain

Harvest since last post (10 days): Black Russian Tomatoes 5lbs,Costoluto Fiorentino Tomatoes 4 1/2lbs,Runner Beans (flowering, setting pods but pods not swelling properly and most dropping off) 10oz,French Beans 2lb 2oz, Courgettes 2lb 4oz, Aubergine 11oz,Spinach 1lb 3oz,Williams Pears (mix of windfalls and picked 26lbs, Conference Pears (haven't done well this year) 1lb, Green Toms (Costuluto Fiorentino) picked for pickles 12oz, Basil 2oz, Sweetcorn - one cob (delicious).

The big news on the harvest front this week has been the pears. Every other year this tree does really well. I bought it for Bill's birthday about 15 years ago - it's a William's pear you see.... This years fruit has a few blemishes but they are really delicious. It is a pity that the season for eating the fruit fresh is very short, so - apart from giving some away to neighbours - I have taken to looking for good recipes to preserve them.

My mother cooks hers in lemonade and they freeze well like this. I tried simmering them in cider which was lovely. I used pretty unripe pears and let them simmer for a long time so that the cider reduced by at least half. They were good.

The trouble with cooked pears though is that their texture is a bit....well.... boring. But adding crunch to them also seems to mean adding 1000s of calories. There is a recipe in Sarah Raven's lovely Garden Cookbook, which is a sort of toffee tart with lots of butter and sugar and puff pastry. In fact the photo here is the recipe in its early stages with the pears simmering in the sugar and butter. It is utterly delicious if a little sweet for someone with a savoury tooth like me...but it gets a big thumbs up. I'm sure it would freeze well - although mine mysteriously disappeared before I had chance to freeze it!

My favourite pear recipe of the year though is from an article by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall published in the Guardian which I found on line - it is a Pear and Almond cake. He uses ground almonds in the sponge mixture and pears (also pre simmered in butter and sugar) perched on top of it. It is delicious - and I didn't make the same mistake with this one. As soon as it had coolled I cut it into portions, kept two for supper, and put it straight in the freezer. Not only does that put them out of sight and out of mind - the effort involved in defrosting them deters me from having 'just one more piece'!