Our harvest

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22

We've been blessed with a really large pear tree in our backyard. It's beautiful... it blooms heavily in the spring...

Most years, it produces abundantly. Sadly, though, we haven't thought that they made great "eating" pears, but with preparation, they make good cooking pears.

The harvest is a little smaller than average this year, but we brought in a few handfuls of pears this week, and this afternoon, my mother prepared a pear cake (a variation of a fresh apple cake) that we love. And, Jon decided to experiment with our dehydrator, so the kitchen is now filled with the lingering scents of warm pear cake... and softly sweet wafts of drying pear slices.

(The pears pictured by the cake are now in the dehydrator.)

And, this is a chance to display another "lovely thing"... my mother's "cake" doily.

Recipe for "Apple-Dapple Cake" (we substitute pears :))

Mix well:
1 1/2 cups oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tblsp. vanilla

Add and mix well:
3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda

Fold in:

3 cups finely chopped tart apples (or pears!)

1 1/2 cups black walnuts (or other nut)

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour in a bundt pan.