Mama's Pear Honey...

We found my grandmothers Pear Honey recipe when we were in Simpsonville last December. My grandparents had pear trees on their property and Mom grew up eating this stuff. I don't remember it, but when she talks about it, you just want to go open a jar of it!

So I decided to make a batch with the pears I got at the church orchard last week. Not knowing what the consistency was supposed to be... my mind was thinking "honey" okay that sounds like syrup, right? Well when I started it looked more like applesauce... okay pear sauce.

Then I added the crushed pineapple. Okay that didn't make much of a difference, only to the overall aroma... yum!

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Then the sugar... 5 lbs. of sugar!! That's when it hit me and all of the wonder and confusion of whether I was doing it right or not faded; and a voice came into my head. It wasn't a regular voice. It was a southern belle voice and it said "add the SHUGA HONEY"!! Of course! It was not pear HONEY... that was just a good ol' southern way of saying super sweet pears!!!

If you are referred to as "honey" or "shuga" or "sweet as" either of the two. It would be a compliment in the south! So the pear honey, (not like the honey bear honey that you pour on biscuits; cuz any southern gal knows you eat your biscuits with red-eye gravy and country ham!!) is like preserves (or pahseves).

So after my little culture lesson this morning it was late enough to call my Mom. I don't think she caught onto my confusion... her response was clear when I tried to describe the consistency and she responded... "shuga, it's not like applesauce"!

Ha, ha, ha... then when I told her my whole kitchen was sticky; she was sure I had made the right stuff.

So when she comes to visit this month, we will see if I got it right or not :)

I can't wait!!

In the meantime, it sure does taste yummy (even if it turns out NOT to be like Mama's). It just sounds good to me over vanilla ice cream, or waffles with whipped cream!!

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But not near my grits!!

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(oh that reminds me... I have to get one of them to write down the story of when my Mother tried to teach my SIL to make grits super creamy like hers for my brother... ha ha ha; that still makes me laugh)

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I love my southern roots; and while as a teenager I was very happy I was able to LOSE that attention drawing southern accent; I sure am happy I haven't lost touch with my inner southern girl. And that was proof the minute I tasted this pear honey. Oh lawdy, bless my soul!