Bluebird Gardens pears not quite ready for picking.

One of My Favorite Foods To Grow

If there is a favorite food I like to grow, it is bartlett pears. Not that I have been terribly successful.

I planted a semi-dwarf Stark Brother's tree in 1983 next to my driveway. The thought was once the tree was bearing fruit, I could sit on my deck and pick a pear off a nearby branch. No one said I had to expend a lot of energy to do so.

I used to dream about picking those pears but over the years, I almost forgot I even had the tree. After three decades of not blooming, or giving fruit, I had given up on ever having pears.

In 2010, the tree had its first blooms, courtesy of wasps that had taken up residence in some of my birdhouses.

Since then, I have had pears every other year. I could have made jam but I enjoy them as they are, sometimes cut into a salad or as a desert fruit. If they are not quite ripe, I put them in a brown bag with an apple for a couple of days until they are soft to the touch.

Summers with record hot temperatures drive squirrels to eat the pears still green so this year I won't be picking any. There is always next year!

Charlotte