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Pears.02 / oven dried pears
October 12, 2016

Temperatures plunged into the twenties last night, officially ending the growing season around here. Ruby and I ran though clouds of our own frosty breath to collect hundreds of green tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers. The rest will be be ok for a few more weeks. Even though the sneaky deer delighted in my open gate and helped themselves to the beet tops.

While I am always blue to see the garden mummify, I also feel relief and excitement as well. With the rows of tender plants officially crossed off my caregiving list, I get to shift my energy elsewhere. And, of course, begin dreaming of next year’s plot.


Anyway, pears! Oh to have a food dehydrator! Well, I don’t. And get by just fine with sunshine and an oven. I read several tutorials that suggested leaving the oven on with the door open over night and, while I am sure that works, the energy conservationist in me just can’t. So I decided to explore doing it my way and see what happened. In short: it worked really well!

Oven Dried Pears

Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Slice whole pears in 1/8 – 1/4″ thick pieces. I didn’t remove the seeds or stems because I thought the seeds would likely fall out and the whole slices look pretty. And, I am all about cooking shortcuts always.

I suppose you could grease your baking sheet but I used parchment paper and placed the slices tight together. After a few batches I learned you can really pack them in. Shove those puppies into each other, overlapping slightly.

My oven has a wonderfully effective convection fan and I used it the whole cooking time. I imagine that sped up cooking time and increased thorough drying…so if you don’t have convection, this will likely take a lot longer.

Suddenly Margot and Ruby are cooking like crazy, all by themselves. Turning the stove on and off, prepping and making meals. While I was elbow deep in all things pear, Margot cooked eggs. Now we just need to work on the clean up…

I cooked the first batch for 4.5 hours and the second batch for 3.5. The first batch is more like chips and the second more bendy and leathery. We all prefer the second.

30 minutes cooked

2 hours cooked

3 hours cooked

done!

Store in a jar in the fridge for many many weeks. If they last that long. xo

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7 Comments


Becky
October 13, 2016 at 6:57 AM

I loved all the pictures but the third one just took my breath away – so simple and pretty. Thanks for the pear recipes – our pear tree went down in Matthew this weekend so we will be putting all the pears up. When you get the cooking clean up taught – let me know – we never mastered that one in our house with the boys and are now working on it with the grands



trbholt
October 13, 2016 at 7:49 AM

They look yummy! I love all these fallish photos.

xoxo!



Leigh
October 14, 2016 at 2:11 AM

Beautiful, as always! Non-related question: do you cook everything stove top with cast iron? Pancakes and eggs? Still so sticky for me!. Bat bags for my two little ones just shipped. Excited! Thank you!



    dig
    October 15, 2016 at 10:56 AM

    I do! I love cast iron. Try a spray bottle with oil. Eggs definitely need a lot of oil or butter to not stick! Hope you love your bat bags! 🙂 Thanks for your purchase.

mary m
October 19, 2016 at 12:47 AM

I so enjoy your blog ; your love of family, home, garden, travel, writing….What an
interesting lady you are.
Such a nice job you did on the pears..my favorite pic is the one with the dog face
looking around the corner as you take the pics of dried pears in a basket.
I am proud to say I am Montana born…Great Falls. Lived at certain other times
at Columbia Falls; my mother was a teacher for one yr. at Half Moon School. (1952)
In 1956 we moved to Dillon from Calif. so my parents could finish up their Bachelors
degree at the college there. I love the Mission Mtn range around the mission at St Regis.
Thank you again for sharing your full and bountiful life on your blog.
Mary M
age 70
Vancouver,Wa



    mary m
    October 20, 2016 at 5:00 PM

    OOPS….I meant St. Ignatious Mission..

Ms. Montana
October 19, 2016 at 12:43 PM

This was just what I needed. I was wanting to buy pears in bulk from local orchards, but wasn’t sure what to do with them. We ended up with about 20 pounds from the farmers market, but my 5 kids powered through those in just a few days. Those look so yummy. Next year!



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    I’m Nici (pronounced like Nikki) and I live in western Montana where I raise kids, vegetables and the roof.

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