All these years later I have a windfall of apples and pears from trees that have never been sprayed, which means I must cut out lots of bug bites. I have made all the apple pies I can force on others, and I haven’t found many ways to use the pears (pear pie spiced like apple pie wasn’t a huge hit but the pears and dark chocolate baked into a coffee cake, or maybe scones, with no other flavoring except perhaps vanilla seems promising). I think green tomato mincemeat is the answer! I see mincemeat recipes that use both apples and pears. I think I will omit the lemon or orange peel and add that at baking time for a bit of extra-fresh flavor, since the oranges will be abundant later in the year.

I love the way Margaret posts articles at exactly the right time of the year when they are the most useful.