Pears and Meeting New Neighbors

Last week I had my first experience of leaving a note in the mailbox of a neighbor I didn't know asking about fruit harvesting. They replied immediately with absolute generosity about sharing the pears from their enormous, old pear tree. In exchange, I left them jam from my apricot tree, and after processing their pears, returned to them some jam from their own tree. The experience was a classic in the reasons I love forage: As usual, the fruit was way too much for any one household, falling to the sidewalk, and making a mess. I was able to harvest pears from the very top of the tree with a fruit picker and give them back to the neighbors whose tree it was who hadn't been able to reach the top fruit. As I stood on the sidewalk picking fruit, other neighbors came by and chatted and I got to distribute the just picked pears to them. Not only was forage a re-distribution success, but I met a handful of lovely new neighbors!

Results: A dozen jars of Apricot-Pear-Ginger Jam and half a dozen jars of Apple Cider and Red Wine Poached Pears.