The particulars
Season
September–October
Picked
By hand, with a quarter turn
Tastes of
Ripe pear, honey, a little grain
Field notes
The pears are Conference, mostly, with a few rows of an older, rougher variety whose name the grower has forgotten. They come from an orchard on a south-facing slope where the trees are fifty years old and pruned less often than they should be.
Pears are picked hard, in September, and ripen off the tree. Picked ripe they go woolly within days. So the fruit is lifted by hand, with the stalk on, when it comes away with a quarter turn, then left in crates in a cool barn for two or three weeks.
When the flesh gives at the neck the pears are milled and pressed, skins and all, and the juice is left to settle overnight rather than filtered clear. It makes up twelve per cent of the can, more than any other fruit we use, and brings all the sweetness the chamomile needs.
