Cheapskate Pears.

October is pear season around here: with an unoccupied house on my running route producing a huge amount of pears the cheapskate in me couldn't let it go to the squirrels. I've been testing pears periodically the past couple of weeks to see when they were perfectly ripe.  Then a week or two ago they finally hit their peak ripeness. 

A few testers when they weren't ripe yet.

Once they were finally ripe I rode by bike over after my run and picked 20+lbs.  It looks like less than it really was, its challenging to ride with that many pears.  They turned out to be huge pears- all for free, whoo-hoo.

I turned 3/4ths of the pears into pear butter using a similar method as my foraged grape jelly, except I seasoned it with fresh ginger rather than cinnamon.  After straining out the skins in my squeezo I was left with 5 pints and 2 quarts. We're planning on using it as a warm dessert item this winter, warm it up over some vegan ice cream, yum.

Since buying my dehydrator a couple of months ago I've tried all sorts of things (banana chips, dried fruits, crackers, dried herbs, etc.) but haven't yet tried a fruit leather.  Using this recipe, plus adding a bit of sugar to take away the bartlett pear 'bite' (although I think it wasn't necessary to add), I made 4 stuffed jars full.  Highly recommend 'pear leather', super tasty afternoon slump snack.

Foraging fruit is becoming my specialty.  See my foraged grapes here.