> red pears and more...

I have an obsession with red and bartlett pears. They like antique pieces of furniture.
The color and texture of their skin always invite me to buy them and put them somewhere
around my place for just pure aesthetic purpose! They convey a very nostalgic feeling for me!

And then..... yesterday on La Tartine Gourmande, I read about her recent visit to Oregon.
she has a full story and also she talks about European spirits, an eau de vie made from  
Williams (Bartlett) pears at Clear Creek Distillery in Oregon. All I wanted then was to 
taste their brandy infused with flavor of my favorite pears! 
Oh.........pour me some from the bottle please! 

This is how they make their pear in the bottle brandies:
" To make pear-in-the-bottle we actually grow the pear inside of the bottle in our 
orchards, and then fill it with our pear eau de vie. This practice of growing pears in 
the bottle is traditional in Alsace where pear brandy has been made for hundreds of years.  
Pear-in-the-bottle is highly labor intensive, requiring weeks of work putting the bottles 
on the trees in late May when the small pear will still fit in the neck of the bottle, 
tending them all summer, and picking them in late August. Since we use no 
preservatives or artificial cleaning solutions, each pear and each bottle must be 
painstakingly scrubbed by hand before we fill with our pear eau de vie for which 
we are known worldwide. Due to the unpredictable nature of pear growth from 
year to year the pear in the bottle is only available certain years."

I'm visualizing it....... an orchard full of bottles hanging from pear trees!
It must be amazing to see! I want to go there now!
The photos she posts on her blog are very delicious and beautiful and her stories
are very inspiring in many ways. Her trip to Oregon made me realize how badly and
for so long i have been wanting to make a trip to Portland, Oregon.

fotos from La Tartine Gourmand  [Full on Oregon, foods and outdoors around Portland]