Three Bags Full

Yes sir, yes sir, and I’m not talking about wool.

August is the time of year in our region of Portugal {the “Oeste”} for pears to be harvested. We are learning that people sign up to be pear pickers, and it just happens to be during the month that many Portuguese are on vacation, but some choose to work as a “picker” instead.

So it shouldn’t have surprised me when a line of cars were parked on our street: the field across from our neighborhood was getting harvested.

They bring in huge boxes and set them periodically amongst the trees for the pickers to fill. Daily we see tractors like this carrying full boxes from fields to the cool storage houses. Pears in this area are called Rocha named after the original producer here and can be kept in storage for around 10 months. They have to be left in warm temps to get soft enough to eat.  I used to think they were called Rocha because they were hard as a rock {the word for it in Portuguese}…but they just need a little time, and they are sweet!

Our neighbor called us to ask if we wanted any pears from the field behind his house. The owner there is not a farmer but gives his pears away to friends. My husband took our car and came back with 3 bags full—he had to tell the man we couldn’t take any more {and there are still gobs of pears on his trees!}. I get sad about all the pears on the ground that pickers deem no good. How much more to see the good ones still hanging on!

But I am not called to use or share every pear. My green, thrifty side hates to see any go to waste! What is NOT green is how I turned on my old fridge in the garage to keep my pears until I can deal with them! I do have two trays of pears sitting outside waiting to ripen so I can make something with them. Maybe pear sauce like two years ago…or maybe something different this time…or both. Any ideas? Wish I could ship them your way!