Fruits of the Harvest

It's fruit picking time in New York, and we've been enjoying the bounty of Grandpa Chen's backyard orchard. Nathaniel loves pears, and he has been excited about the concept of picking his own pears this fall. He was not excited, though, when everyone else decided that the perfect time to pick pears would be in the middle of an Autumn rain.

The fruit was so abundant this year that the trees had to be harvested early because some branches were cracking and threatening to break under the stress of all the extra weight.

Nate was interested in how the pears hung in clusters (like the blossoms in the spring) and in how the Asian pears were round while the American pears were teardrop shaped. He liked the fact that he could pick the pears off in their groups instead of having to pluck each pear from the tree.

We filled buckets, bowls, and the hoods of our coats and then headed inside for some lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Chen. Nate spent a lot of time talking about how long it will take for the pear trees we transplanted into our yard to grow large enough to bear fruit, and the fact that we do not need two pear trees to have a lots of pears.


Now we're researching options for pear storage. I think we're going to freeze some sliced pears, freeze some pear pies, and can some pear butter.