Our Pear Tree

     Just inside our south garden gate is the last remnant of the original Crellin family orchard – a pear tree that stands some sixty feet high.  Actually, in Dear Medora I said it was “forty feet at least” but recently my husband said “probably seventy.”  He also suggests that I could brush off my dusty math skills and figure it out…  Suffice it to say, it is tall.
     The pear tree was here in 1902 when my grandparents moved into the house.  There may have been several pear trees and, for sure, there were apple and plum trees, as well.  My grandmother made applesauce and apple butter and plum preserves, all of which I remember fondly.  But I don’t really remember the trees.  Nor do I know what happened to them.  They were undoubtedly planted by Tom and Anne Jane Christian Crellin who built the house in 1869.  Perhaps, as they grew old, my grandfather removed them.
     In the summer, the old pear tree is completely enveloped in sweet-smelling honeysuckle.  I don’t know if it is the effect of the honeysuckle or the age of the tree that causes it to produce the worst pears in the world.  They are as hard as rocks.  In fact, the birds give them one or two pecks and leave them alone.  Maybe the deer eat a few, but by the end of the season the ground is littered with ‘etrified pears.’
     It always seems a shame to waste them, so most years we do as my grandmother did and pickle them using her recipe.  By so doing, they are rendered not only edible but positively ambrosial!
            Peel and core 3# pears
            Boil 1½ Q water; put pears in water.  Cook until tender.
            Add bouquet garni of 6 cinnamon sticks, 2 T cloves, 2 t whole ginger.
            Add 2 C. sugar. 
           Cook 5 min.
           Add 1 C  white vinegar.  Simmer 3 min.
           Discard bouquet garni.
           Pack in jars; cover with syrup and seal.