GO PEARS!

Realizing my unsweetened canned peaches came with an easy-pull tab while the exact same brand of pears required a can opener, I had to wonder why pears are the bastard stepchild of the fruit world?

Perhaps the company hadn’t gotten around to pears yet, just favoring peaches for their popularity and putting them in delicious pear juice, but there is no pearsauce, no pear pie, no pear cobbler, no pear shortcake, no pear Jell-O, and basically no pear desserts whatsoever except for heated pears with some type of sauce (usually balsamic vinegar)—and who makes those?

It can’t be about texture, because there would at least be pearsauce. They are available year-round, too. So why do we not use them as a go-to fruit for desserts and flavorings?

There is, quite recently, the hard-to-find sparkling pear juice which is pure heaven and so far beyond the apple version to make me wonder the reason for making apple at all. Sparkling peach or cranberry juice is okay, and better than apple, but it still doesn’t compare.

I say all of this but am not especially fond of eating fresh pears out-of-hand. They aren’t bad, just not my favorite. I had them very firm as a child with pear trees, so the super sweet and mushy ones are fine, just not what I was used to. I do, however, like them in desserts. Pear Jelly Bellies are my favorite flavor, too.

I think I shall take it as a personal quest to bring pear recipes to the world. They are a fruit worth mentioning and worth using.