There are several varieties of pears, but the best is the Brocton pear. Bet most readers are not familiar with the Brocton pear variety.

The Brocton pear grows on a tree which is owned by my sweet, dear friend Helen Wood of Brocton. Thanks to the generosity of Helen, and her husband Rodney, many people in Brocton enjoy this delicious pear. Helen said she remembers the tree since she was in high school, more than 60 years ago, and does not know the scientific name, so I am calling it the Brocton pear.

When I brazenly asked Helen this year if I could harvest some of the pears she said, “Certainly.” The pears were fantastic with not one worm hole, even though Helen informed me they were not sprayed. Maybe the pears should be called organic Brocton pears. 

Whatever the variety is, they made some very tasty fruit and were a delight to prepare. The first thing I made was canned pears in a light syrup.  I wanted to can some pears for my daughter Christina’s family as Christina has always loved canned pears. Pears used to be her favorite fruit, so much so that at Christmas time I put a can of pears in her Christmas stocking instead of an orange.

Our grandchildren love fruit, and during a recent visit, I wanted to take them some canned pears and talk to them about where they came from. Our grandchildren are interested in food preparation, and we always have to cook something when I visit. I also gave a jar to a neighbor, a jar to Helen and a jar to my sister Rose who said her son Todd loves pears. Thanks to Helen and the abundant Brocton pear tree I could be generous and still have pears to keep for the winter. 

Visiting our grandchildren is special, and I decided I needed to bring them some Upside-Down Gingerbread Pear Cake. Normally, it would be Aunt Elsie’s Blueberry Muffins, as that is always the

first thing they want, when they come to my house or I go there. Since I was really into pears just before the visit, I thought the look of an Upside-Down Gingerbread Pear Cake might be appealing. The recipe I used was posted by southernliving.com, and I liked the cake so much I plan to just make the gingerbread cake itself, without the pears.

The last thing I made with the Brocton pears was the best because I had my two sous chefs working with me. Grandchildren Annie and Jay helped me make a pear pie for their dad. I had never made a pear pie assuming it would not be as flavorful. I looked at several recipe sites and in cookbooks and came up with a good recipe.

My grandchildren love it when I make pie as I always make extra crust for them to roll and create what they wish. Normally, they make mini-cinnamon rolls with the dough, which is what Jay did with his. Annie made pastry sticks with sprinkles. She saw the recipe in her Highlights magazine. 

After rolling the dough about 8 inches long, she cut the dough into three-quarter inch wide strips using a pizza cutter. She topped the strips with sprinkles, and they looked and tasted great. So good in fact, she told her dad he could not eat the last one because he had already had two and the last was for her. The recipe in Highlights used pizza dough, but pie dough worked very well.

I have to share my crumblies story. Both Annie and Jay love to help make blueberry muffins because I always allow them to put the topping on each muffin. The topping is a melted butter, flour/sugar mix, and crumblies is what they call it. Each gets to top 12 muffins. Another thing they love to do is roll out their own little piece of pie dough.

Remember, even if a recipe does not turn out correctly, savor the experience. Creating memories is what we are really cooking, especially with grandchildren.