Should I take them something in return?
By Fleur
@Fleura (34962)
United Kingdom
December 10, 2018 6:19am CST
Some friends have a big pear tree in their front garden, and every year it is absolutely loaded with fruit. Their compost heap is piled with pears. They even have to move their cars so they don’t get dented by all the falling pears!
When I called in a couple of weeks ago they seemed only too happy to give me a big box full, and since then I have been working my way through them all. They’re quite hard so not too good to eat raw, although they are very juicy, but great for cooking. So far I’ve made pear and cardamom cake (twice); pear crumble (also twice); Anjou pear cake, spiced poached pears (three times, two different recipes); pear and ginger conserve; pear, stilton and walnut tart, and pear brandy.
I kind of feel that perhaps I should take them something as a thankyou for all this free food – but on the other hand I kind of feel that if they wanted they could have made all these things themselves rather than just throwing the fruit away!
What would you do?
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2018.
12 people like this
12 responses
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
10 Dec 18
Chocolate. Hot cocoa mix. Nice coffee beans or leaf tea. I usually give that sort of things to my neighbors who have a plethora of watermelons and sweet corn and make us feel as if we are doing them a favor by taking half a watermelon or some sweet corn. I actually keep a stash of nice tea just in case I have an "emergency present" I need to give, and I can drink it up when it gets too old and get another.
2 people like this
@Fleura (34962)
• United Kingdom
12 Dec 18
@LadyDuck they have many advantages: they are very easy to grow, produce better yields than potatoes, have fewer pests and diseases, pretty flowers, and they are healthy. It's just a shame I couldn't take to them at all. They contain a special compound called inulin that means they are especially suitable for diabetics. I passed all my tubers on to a lady who had a diabetic person in her family so they were happy!
1 person likes this
@Fleura (34962)
• United Kingdom
11 Dec 18
Quite right, I don't either. If there is a glut of something I try lots of different ways to prepare it. I have come to like things I thought I didn't like once I found the recipes I liked! The only thing that didn't work for was Jerusalem artichokes, I tried all sorts of ways to prepare them but still didn't really like them, I had to give up growing them which was a shame.
1 person likes this
@responsiveme (22923)
• India
10 Dec 18
Maybe they don't know how to make those things?
I would have lived a neighbour with pear to spare.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (34962)
• United Kingdom
10 Dec 18
They are not neighbours, but they are people I know. Having said that, my mother always used to tell me it was rude to ask for things, we should wait for them to be offered, but after often seeing gardens with laden fruit trees surrounded by rotting fruit on the ground I gathered my courage to knock on doors and ask for things instead!
1 person likes this
@responsiveme (22923)
• India
10 Dec 18
@Fleura I would have asked too..,why waste. But I wonder why they don't give more away
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169449)
• United States
10 Jan 19
I would be interested in learning more about the pear cardamom cake, as my husband likes cardamom. I have made fruit dishes with pears and apples drizzled with honey and a special spiced vinegar I make. I have made pear crisp, which is probably like a crumble, with gingerbread cookies for the topping. When I purchase hard pears they seem to ripen quickly in my house. Yes, I would give them a small gift.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (34962)
• United Kingdom
1 Mar 19
@GardenGerty It's taken me a while to get around to looking this up, but here it is at last. This is the recipe I used and it's very good:
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/upside-down-pear-cardamom-cake-104438
@allknowing (153544)
• India
10 Dec 18
I have that issue with fruits that I dump in the compost pits too.
You are doing them a favour by accepting those pears which would have otherwise gone into the compost pit (lol)
1 person likes this
