Plentiful Pears

The pears have been plentiful this year. The squirrels were helping themselves, so I harvested all I could reach yesterday. It's a little hard to tell with pears. You have to pick them before they're ripe & let them ripen off the tree. If you leave them on the tree until ripe, they end up gritty. Joseph & I headed to Eden yesterday, to visit & share a meal with my Dad & his wife Lois, my siblings & their spouses, 2 nieces & a nephew. My Dad & Lois live in a wonderful, old house with lots of character. They're at the end of a road, so it's always peaceful sitting on their front porch. Today I harvested herbs for drying- stevia, basil & chocolate mint. So far, the only way I've used the mint is mixing a handful of the fresh mint in with coffee grounds when making iced coffee. It's wonderful, but I'd like to experiment with the dried herb. Ideas welcomed!