Greengages

This is the fifth summer that we've lived in this house and have enjoyed the produce from the fruit trees in the garden.  I am somewhat ashamed to say that this is the first time that I've realised we've got a greengage tree.  I always assumed the thin, lanky tree that produced green fruit which never ripened was some sort of stunted plum tree.  And I'd have gone on thinking that if my next-door neighbour hadn't asked me how the greengages were coming along!!  Right enough, when I went to have a closer look the tree was laden with little green fruits which looked totally different to the lush purple plums.

Yesterday afternoon I braved the great height of tottering about on a wooden chair and managed to pretty much strip the tree of all its fruit.  It was a good colander-ful that I managed to pick in and they're gently simmering away on the stove now so that there'll be stewed greengages for pudding this evening.  I'm so glad my neighbour mentioned them or else, for the fifth year running, they'd have just dropped from the tree!  What an ignoramous.

Likewise the pear tree.  Most years it has produced some fruit (and yes, even I could recognise they were pears) but I've never actually managed to eat any.  This year the tree is laden with pears but I'd begun to notice that quite a few were just rotting on the branch.  After consulting Mum I decided to pick in those that were still good and see if they'll ripen off indoors.  Nothing ventured etc etc.  I think there are 18 pears now in the bowl.  Let's see what happens in the next week or two.

I also want to say thank you very much to Frugal Trenches for the Superior Scribbler award

and to Caroline from Whats Happening at My House for the Kreativ Blogger award.

They're both much appreciated and I'll try and get round to playing by the rules of these awards next week. 

Comments

[Jennifer]

How exciting to have all of that fruit in your back garden. I've read that putting pears in a paper bag with a ripe banana or apple helps speed the ripening process up (the ethylene gas). I'm guessing all 18 will ripen at the same time :) I have a delicious pear custard pie recipe that I would be more than happy to e-mail you. Basically you slice the pears up and put them in a pie plate and then blend up the other ingredients to form a batter, pour it over and bake. It is delicious and uses 3 pears.

[jeanie]

Hi there, I live in a famous pear-growing region, and Jennifer is absolutely right about the brown paper bag and ethylene gas--The pears are picked while still rock hard, and many of them go into controlled atmosphere cold storage buildings, and will be sold over the next several months. As you've discovered, pears tend to rot rather than ripen on the tree. It looks like your pears are Boscs, and you probably can ripen a few at a time in a bag and keep the rest in the fridge until you are ready to ripen them. And I am sure this is way more information than you ever wanted on the subject of pears.