Pear Harvest Time in Montana

Oh yes, pear time! 

Pear Harvest.jpg

My friend has a pear tree while we have apple and cherry trees. We picked two grocery bags and three buckets full of delicious pears. This week most will continue to ripen safe from the frost. A few are still tucked in that paper bag you see to ripen faster for eating. The others will become dried pears, pear filling for crunches and pies, and maybe even some pear fruit leather.

Apple season comes next. I'm hoping for a week or so. But it's right after the first frost. Same plans for those luscious little gems :-) 

For pear and apple pie/crunch fillings, I've found I can add all the ingredients to chopped and peeled fruit. Then mix well, fill one pie's worth freezer bag, squeeze out all the air, and put in the deep freeze until needed. The fruit will do well in the deep freeze all winter. But it doesn't usually make it that long, lol.

Our lives are so hectic nowdays, but when we stop to prepare for the future (as the Bible suggests) then we simplify many of our scheduling issues. Pull a bag of prepared pear or apple pie filling out of the freezer, top with crunch mixture of oatmeal, flour, butter, brown sugar, and spices like cinammon. You can have that potluck dish or dessert ready for the oven in less than 10 minutes. Less cost, less hassle on busy nights, and you control the ingredients. (So double the cinammon to amp up your  metablolism and cut back on the sugar a tad.) Love the way these prep items have saved my peace of mind over and over again.

So try something new with your harvest, if you haven't already, and freeze the pie filling already prepped for the crust. (I don't cook it first either.) You'll have homemade goodies in a snap.