Our pears would certainly never win any beauty contests, but they are delicious. R carefully prunes the trees each spring, but we never use any kind of spray. As a result the skins are full of blemishes, and sometimes the whole fruit is a little misshapen. When we have a bumper crop, it can be hard to give them away…until the lucky recipient takes a bite. They are absolutely delicious, with undertones of jasmine. I can’t tell you the variety. The trees were here long before we came.

This year the crop was small…just enough to give to our most appreciative relatives, with enough left for a couple of pies. For this one you need about 6 pears, cut up and combined with half a cup of sugar and the juice and zest of one lemon. Pile that mixture into an unbaked 9 inch pie pan and top with: half cup each of flour and sugar seasoned with ground ginger, cardamom and mace. Cut in a third cup of butter, sprinkle over the top of the pie and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

I’ve been picking up lots of intriguing recipes since Wendy introduced her “garden to table challenge”. When our gardens start disgorging mountains of produce it gets hard to keep coming up with creative ways to turn it into wonderful meals. That’s when our blogging friends come in handy. Check it out.