Every year about this time, I head to my favorite fruit stand at the farmer’s market and flutter my eyelashes and ask “will there be sugar pears this year?”
This special variety grows quite well in the Pacific Northwest – which is how I encountered them in the first place. As a young culinary student, I stumbled across these gorgeous tiny pears as I was sourcing ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner. I poached them as bite sizes nibbles to enjoy on a cheese plate, for the most EPIC dinner party I’ve ever thrown (complete with deviled quail eggs, stuffed cornish hens, homemade ice cream and individual pumpkin pies…I could go on.) I fell in love with their cuteness and have been hunting them ever since.
It’s much harder to grow this variety here in Colorado. Often, the farm only has a couple of boxes and when they do, they rarely make it to market. But this year, I didn’t even have to flirt to get my sugar pear fix. There they were one sunny fall day. And I bought up all I could carry home with me.
When I can get my hands on these special fruits, I poach them, jar them and give them as gifts. AND, also hoard a few jars for myself to last through the winter.
My dedication to both the gifting and the hoarding has taken on a special new purpose since I began studying Ayurveda nearly 9 years ago. Ayurveda recognizes that when we consume raw fruits with other foods, we create undue digestive distress. The fruit ferments in the stomach before the other ingredients can start to break down, which causes long-term digestive imbalances.
But, if we eat cooked fruits with other foods, we lessen this negative impact significantly. But who poaches pears in the morning for breakfast each day through the winter? No one. Barely even me. Mornings are wild in our house, and I need to have ingredients locked and loaded…and these tiny, special, delicious and easy-to-digest pears are a godsend when I want to add a little sweetness to my toast, want to enjoy something with my coconut yogurt + granola, or forgot to add fruit to our porridge.
By giving these cute, festive, delicious and very special little pears, I’m giving a beautiful gift…and also the gift of better digestion. How thoughtful of me! Ha!
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