Today I've been thinking retrospectively - way back - to a time before I was born. Today I read an article about the weather and the 2 500-year floods we've had in the past year and the bitter cold winter with 60 or so inches of snow, and I thought about Grandpa talking about the winter of 1936. He said that they couldn't get out of the driveway for a couple of weeks and people needed to be pulled out frequently. No one really went anywhere for awhile. We really take for granted so many modern conveniences. Now "they" are saying that we might have a bigger depression than the "Great Depression." And weather like the Dust Bowl!
So this afternoon and evening I used Grandma and Grandpa's stuff. We started with the apple picker, which has now become a pear picker, since we have a pear tree. I think I'll need to learn to solder so I can repair the tine that bent off.
Then we sat out on the front yard and pealed our pears into Grandma's perfectly-sized blue bowl with the big crack down the middle. Every time I use (which is quite frequently) it I wonder how long the crack will last, who will ultimately break it, and how it originally got there. It was also a great time to look for worms in action eating the pears - Just like Grandma would have done with her Little Billy and Donna. I know, because she took every opportunity to teach.
Then inside to make pie. This is where I differ from Grandma. . . I looked for recipes online! Although I think I could have come up with a pear pie recipe on my own. I also don't keep lard on hand for making pie crust. Instead I use the package of prerolled dough. Some of you might think lazy, but I am going to get up at 5:30 tomorrow and grade a whole lot of papers before school and then I'm going to tach 130 kids every thing they need to know, b/c their parents are busy working and the teachers need to do it! Ohhh how the times have changed.
So back to the pie. I love a crumb topping on my pie - extra sweetness. And the package has 2 crusts, so I can make 2 pies! But then I don't have enough ripe pears. Then I remembered Grandma's apple pealer, corer! And we had a bag of these-need-to-be-used apples from the walk last week. So in about 10 minutes I've got enough apples to make a nearly overflowing apple pie to go with the pear pie. Thanks for all of the super useful tools, Grandma!
Now what do I do with the pie that I didn't really need, but needed to make to use up the pears and apples? Grandma would have put it in the deep freeze. I don't have one of those. Maybe she would have invited someone over. Anyone want to come over for pie?
Note: Grandpa is celebrating his first anniversary in Heaven this week. We miss you, and think of you (and Grandma) when we use your "hand me downs."
4 comments:
Sorry for your loss.
Don't suppose you could send some pie over to us ;)
Let me know how your pears taste. Mine are gritty. They are really quite an unpleasant texture, although the flavor is good. Finally figured out why -- you're not supposed to let pears ripen on the tree! Who knew... So pick them when they're full size but not ripe, and let them ripen on the counter. Next year I'll try that. This year, looks like my whole crop will be composte to help next year's crop!
can I have some pie? Heck.... I'll take a whole meal.... airmail to.... my house.... :-)
The pie is really pretty good. I think I should have cooked the pear pie a bit more, but it is still good.
I've heard we should take the pears off when the get big, but so far this seems to work for us so far. I don't have any place to keep them.
I've also heard that you need to have 2 pear trees. When we moved here, we had the big tree and a very damaged pear bush. Dad and I creamed over the twiggy bush. So we just have one. According to our sermon on Sunday, we shouldn't be able to make pears with only 1 tree. I guess these are miracle pears!
The science department is supplying treats tomorrow. We wanted to make it easy and just do carmel apples.
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