This Episode Is the Pear

It’s apparent that this juicy, fragrant tree fruit -- whether crunchy or buttery -- is considered by many to be beyond compare. Anney and Lauren pair up to explore the science, history, and poetry of pears.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Larn Bogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about pairs. Yes, it was
kind of a beast to wrangle everybody. It seriously was
like I thought, I chose this topic because I thought
it was going to be, if nothing else, straightforward, um

(00:31):
and not too much of a bear, not too much
of a bear of a pear. Uh. And heck I
was wrong. I was quite incorrect. Yep. People have a
lot to say about payers, and they like to really
play it on thick when it comes to the language. Yeah,
Oh my goodness, I'm impressed. Yeah. Yeah, um, we were

(00:57):
saying before we started recording. I don't know why we
bothered to do that. We should probably just get record um.
But yeah, it's like, not since asparagus have I read
so many things so intense about uh produce. M you're
only going to get a handful in here. There's so

(01:20):
much out there. Yeah, these are just the ones that
stuck with us. Yes, I had to make some choices,
like we can't just have this whole thing, can't just
be poems about pairs that I like. Unfortunately, yeah. Oh
my gosh, Savor side podcast and it's just food poetry.

(01:41):
I'm into it, yes, right, okay, okay, alright, I'm making
a plan for a next side dish. Yeah. Fun, that
would be so fun. Okay. So one of the things
that I was surprised by is I I love a pair.
I love a good pair, but I definitely did not
have one until high school college. What wow. Yeah even now,

(02:08):
like I love them, but I very rarely have one.
Um okay, it's just kind of a I don't know.
They weren't a part of my household. I had a
friend who was from Taiwan and she gave me um
every Christmas. She would give me an Asian pair, but
it was kind of that level of like they weren't

(02:30):
big in my house, so I have to go out
of my way to get a pair. Interesting. I definitely
grew up with them, like in my school lunches and
stuff and um uh. I think my grandmother introduced me
to Asian style pairs when I was maybe in middle
school or high school. And and I love them, I

(02:51):
am I very I don't buy them very often because
I feel like I'm I'm bad at at finding that
window they're right, and when they're not right, I'm mad
about it. So and I know myself, I know that
I'm gonna like forget it. I'm gonna think about it
when I first buy it and it's not ready, and

(03:13):
then I'm going to forget about it until it's a
way gone. So yeah, I just don't. I just don't.
I'm like, how about some more cherry tomatoes. Let's let's
be realistic. It's a skill. It's a skill, for sure.
A pair can mislead you, A pair can mislead you.
A quote of the episode, well, I guess this brings

(03:35):
us too hawk questions. Sure, pairs, what are they? Well,
Pears are a type of fruit that grows on trees
to about palm sized or so, like a like a
good size to fit in your palm. Yeah, with a
very very thin edible skin. Uh. There are two basic

(03:56):
varieties of pairs that are rounder and we'll be crisp
and crunch when they're ripe, and pears that are more
elongated with a tapering neck that will be soft and
buttery when they're ripe. Both types tend to be shades
of gold on the outside and creamy white on the inside.
Very fragrant and a lot of like perfumey, floral or

(04:16):
even musky flavors. In addition to the baseline sweetness and brightness,
um both tend to be very juicy and can be
a little bit grainy or sandy in texture. Uh. They're like, um,
and I'm so sorry I'm leaning into it. Uh. They're
like a boudoir apple, all right. They're like maybe a

(04:36):
little bit old fashioned, but like sweet and delicate and
and perfumed and succulent. I love this. I love this because,
as we're going to discuss, there is also a lot
of pear art and now I'm just seeing like a
bedroom scene with the like on the jair racy pear.

(04:57):
Oh my gosh, I bet it exists. I've that does positive?
Uh um well. Uh. Pears comprise the genus Pyrus with
a few different species delineated um at least four of
the firm round types that are also called Asian pears

(05:20):
um and at least one of the oblong type that
are also called European pears, Although there are lots of
varieties within those species, Lots and lots um pairs are
in the rosassier or rose family, along with things like plums, quinces, almonds,
and yes, apples, pears do grow on trees. Those trees

(05:40):
will reach about thirty feet in height near about ten meters. Though.
Farmers will graft the type of fruiting tree that they
want onto the type of root stock uh for for
the sort of growth that they want in terms of
height and hardiness, stuff like that. It's generally a temperate
climate tree. Uh. They will bloom every year with really

(06:04):
pretty white flowers with these long filaments in the center
little bits of pink and yellow, and the flowers tend
to be super fragrant when they're pollinated from a different tree.
And yes, you need two trees to make it work.
They will develop fruit that will grow to the size
of like a small, smallish fist usually. Uh. Their skin
can be smooth or rough and will be green when

(06:26):
they're immature in any shade from green to gold to
to tan or brownish or even blushed when they are mature,
and they can brown super quickly when they're overripe. Oh. Yeah.
There are some species of pear that will flower but
do not bear edible fruit, like the Bradford pear, which

(06:49):
are generally bad for several reasons and should be removed
from from nature. They should just we should get them
out of there. Like they do not serve a use
they they in fact will They're structurally unsound, the Bradford
pair in particular, and they will cross pollinate with like
a lot of other trees and just muck up the

(07:10):
genetics of everything involved. Also they smell bad. Um so
strong opinions, strong opinions. Bradford, many people, most gardens. Most
gardeners do like like one of the like one of
the like like like gardening tricks. Um. If you want
to find out if a gardening center near you is
of an appropriate quality, you can go and be like, ah, hey,

(07:33):
do you have any Bradford pairs? And if they say yes,
just leave wow okay, which which seems rude to me,
but but I've seen this suggested good day. Leave. You

(07:54):
can leave politely, yeah yeah, yeah right. You don't have
to like bite your thumb at them on your way out. Anyway.
We're ostensibly a food show. Um Pears are often eaten
fresh alone or in sweet or savory dishes, sliced into salads,

(08:15):
baked into pies or quick breads, poached or roasted. Uh.
The oblong and soft types of pears are picked and
typically sold when they're mature but still unripe, meaning, as
we were talking about earlier, you've got to let them
ripe in before you eat them. And I am not
the only human who has trouble with this. Knowing when

(08:37):
they are good to go can be tricky for other
humans as well. Um, but for most varieties, if you
apply gentle pressure to the neck of the fruit, uh,
it'll give a little when it's ready to eat. Okay, Yeah,
don't like squish it, but just kind of boop it. Yeah,
right solid yeah um. And you can pop a pear

(09:01):
in the fridge to either put that off or or
hold them there once they arrive. Yeah. Pairs are also
preserved by drying or canning. When they're canned, they tend
to be really soft because they're they're cooked basically during
the production process. They can also be pud and made
into a sauce or spread like pear butter or preserves
or jam. They've got a bunch of pectin, so they

(09:23):
lend themselves to that kind of thing. They can also
be juiced and or purred and made into cider, alcoholic
or non perry is a specific type of pear cider
that's going to need to be a whole other episode. Indeed,
I started and then stopped. I was like, Nope, not today.
Perry Uh also used to produce wines and brandy, and

(09:46):
some varieties of pair brandy feature a whole pair inside
the bottle. I don't know if you've seen this, but
it looks sort of like a ship in a bottle
because it seems just impossible that it could have passed,
that it could have gotten there. Um. And the way
that they get the pair in the bottle is by
literally growing it in the bottle, like when the fruit

(10:06):
just begins developing from a pollinated flower. They stick a
bottle on the tip of the branch and tie it
in place. Wow, I loved us. That's cool. That's pretty cool.
Also whole other episode. Yes, I can't wait for that one. Um. Well,
what about the nutrition by itself? A pair is like

(10:27):
a little on the sugary side, but pretty good for you.
You know, lots of fiber, lots of micronutrients, so it
will help fill you up like a little bit, but
has no fat or protein to speak of. So pair
it with those two keep you going um, and they
do contain a lot of fermentable fruittoast sugars, so maybe
avoid them if you're looking to lower your food maps maps.

(10:48):
I never know how to say it neither. Yeah that thing, yeah, yes,
that thing. Um. Well, we do have some pair and
members for you, we do. Um. There are around three
thousand recognized varieties of pairs around the world. A lot, yeah,

(11:10):
a lot of pairs. Also a lot of pairs. Something
like twenty seven million tons are produced every year. Whoa
yeah as often. They were the fifth most widely produced
fruit in the world overall, and the the Asian variety specifically,

(11:32):
we're the ninth most produced. I guess yeah um as
China and the United States grow the most, followed by
Argentina and South Africa. Uh. In the US, the Pacific
Northwest is kind of the growing center, and there are
a number of yearly pair fairs there. Um. One in

(11:59):
med Oregon involves a golf tournament and a corn hole
tournament both thank you. Um. It has been running every
April since nineteen fifty four. Wow. Yeah, listeners, please right
in as always pictures. Yes, yes, I need to know

(12:20):
about this, okay. Um. Pair production in that region is
shifting though, from mostly producing for canning to mostly producing
for selling fresh. Um. As of two thousand one, it
was like seventy canned fresh and as it was canned
to fresh. Yeah mm hmm. And one more number here.

(12:46):
It's not strictly about pairs, but I found it way
too interesting to let it pass by. Um. Apparently that
was a pun. Sorry okay, uh in just assumed that
I meant every single pun in this episode except for
that one. That one slipped by me o. Um. In

(13:08):
the mid to late grocery stores might have devoted five
ft of shelf space two canned fruits. Whoa, um, these
days it's more more like like three to five feet. Yeah,
that's quite a shift. Yeah yeah, and twenty feet is

(13:33):
is what like like a six six ms? Yeah, so
it's like like six ms to like one mem yeah
wow m hm. Times they are a changing, they are, indeed. Well.
I have some peir pop culture notes, although as mentioned,
I had to make some executive decisions here. Um. They're

(13:54):
gonna be a few more throughout the history section, but
I just want to include these because the reason kind
of like where did you know this thing come from?
Apparently there's a thing in Spain set or this is
the pair referring to an amazing experience. I know, right,
isn't that excellent? This is really the pair yes listeners

(14:18):
again police right in. But then on the other hand
you have something being pear shaped, which is usually denoting
something that went wrong. I found a whole thing from
the U. S d A about this. I didn't have
the energy to go into it, but anyway, Um, this
is a this is a British ism mostly uh and

(14:40):
I also kind of went on a dive into it.
And there's a lot of argument about where it comes from.
But it seems to have really developed in the nine
nineties as a phrase, which is a lot newer than
I thought me too. Yeah um, but yeah, apparently going
pear shaped wasn't really in the written record until right

(15:01):
around the nies anyway, Yeah uh um. Hair shaped can also,
of course, uh talk about the cut of a gems
down um, which means like a tear drop shape um.
Or can refer to a body type which means yeah,
like thicker at the bottom. Mm hmm. It's I mean,

(15:23):
pairs got a lot going on when it comes to
the idioms department and what it can refer to all
kinds of things. And just to illustrate the point Lauren
and I have been making that people are really into pairs,
I want to include this quite dramatic quote my opinion
UM from the Horde Perdue document on Pairs, which was

(15:45):
very helpful to this UM. They're also usually like like
the produced Horticulture Department is a great resource. Um. They
are frequently very dry in their reportings of the ings.
But there is this paper that they have published on
pairs that is full of history and culture notes. And yeah,

(16:07):
just like I looked it up and like, like the
author wasn't quoting someone, They were just saying this about
pairs unto themselves. Yes, I was like, this is not
my normal or Perdue documents that I'm used to. Yeah,
so fun, okay, alright, alright, Eric, please please leave this

(16:28):
with this antie. Yes, as the opera lover yearns to witness,
but seldom, if ever, experiences the ultimate synthesis of music
and drama, So the pair connoisseur strives to obtain but
seldom gets to consume the perfect fruit at its optimum
state of maturity and stage of ripeness to produce the
perfect proportion of texture, flavor, acidity, and sweetness. It's beautiful.

(16:53):
It's beautiful. It's about pairs and pairing pairs to the opera. Yes,
the unobtainable perfect pair. Oh my gosh, I love it.
There we are, there, we are. But how did we
get to here? Ah? There is so much history there is,

(17:15):
and we will get into it, but first we're going
to take a quick break for word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, so okay,
um pairs. Pairs are thousands of years old, um, and

(17:40):
there are several different places they may have originated from. Also,
you know, some varieties come into play here too. Uh.
Some speculate that pairs originally are from southeastern Europe, while
others say they're originally from Asia. Um. There are about
twenty species in the genus Pirates. UM. I don't know

(18:02):
a lot of different conflicting numbers about that. And these
varieties are thought to be from a wide swath of
land from Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor and Asia. Yeah,
it's it seems to be at least two starting points.
But people like to argue about it. They also like
to argue about that number of species. I read somewhere

(18:24):
like like eight species in Pirus, including some recognized hybrids,
and the article that I read this and noted that
like taxonomists enjoy arguing about this, So of course, anyway, Um,
the genus started branching off from other rosassi A relatives

(18:47):
like twenty five million years ago or more. Um, But right,
the types that we know today are from the past
couple of thousand years and are the result of a
lot of evolution and also human intervention. Yes, because wherever
they're from, pairs have a long history of people enjoying them, um,
really really enjoying them. Records suggest that pairs were present

(19:11):
in China going back as far as five thousand b C.
When a Chinese diplomat shirked his responsibilities in favor of
grafting numerous crops, including pairs. So who's basically like, I'd
rather be doing this thing with the pair? Sorry, UM.
Pairs showed up in China's written record over hundred years ago,
and in the early days UM, it seems it was

(19:35):
viewed as a luxury or something enjoyed by royalty. It
was very favored for sweetness and its texture. UM. A
sixth century book chronicles the history of growing pairs in
China over the preceding fifteen hundred years. The seat at
the pair was present in Japan by about two hundred
three hundred C, but the pair didn't show up in

(19:56):
the written record until about seven UM. He was probably
around and kicking before that, though, uh. And according to
some of these same sources, the pair has a long
history of being associated with things like fertility, longevity, purity, wisdom,
and nobility in places like Korean China. Again, please write
in I couldn't remember. I think we talked about this

(20:18):
a little bit in our Lunar New Year episode. Yeah,
pairs are one of the unlucky foods to gift around
the Lunar New Year because of the hominem that is,
the word pair and the word um I think separate
or move apart or something something like that. Something that

(20:39):
was so strikingly close to the hominem that it is
in English that I was like, oh huh yeah, anyway,
um again, listeners right in um uh. If we look
at Europe, the European pair goes back to prehistoric times there,
and dried slices dating back to the Ice Age were
discovered in some Swiss caves dried slices pears. Uh. The

(21:04):
ancient Greeks and Romans favored pairs. They used them in syrups, desserts, wines.
In fact, Homer described them as a quote gift from
the gods. And what is one of the very first
known written instances of this fruit. Um. Several of our
ancient agriculturalist, herbalist, doctors, philosophers, a lot of them. Multiple

(21:25):
of those hats wrote about them, including Plenty who was
a big fan, and he wrote about their many purported
medicinal purposes, specifically boiled pairs, because it's kind of funny
as a whole thing about like, don't need a fresh pair,
that's not good for you, you don't want that, but
you boil them. Gokay, sure, sure uh. The Romans developed

(21:48):
somewhere around fifty varieties and planted them across Europe. And
because they were surprized and their shelf life was pretty decent,
which I was kind of like raised my eyebrow, but okay,
I guess so um, they traveled along many ancient trade routes.
Charlemagne established the first known collection of pairs in France
sometime in the ninth century, though they were probably pretty

(22:11):
common in the country before then, and like, we could
have done a whole episode just on the history of
pears in France to be honest that oh yeah, oh easy.
People loved him. I loved him. Pairs show up quite
a bit in religious text and art from around this time,
as we've discussed with practically every fruit episode, and I

(22:32):
think some that weren't even fruit. The forbidden fruit in
the Garden of Eden wasn't explicitly named, and some argue
it may have been a pair instead of an apple.
It served as a symbol of sinful temptation. In Augustine
four hundred c work, Confessions are Testimony, and that's the

(22:53):
title differs depending on the translation. Um Augustine was an
influential religious figure, and in this work, one of his
most well known works. By the way, he pontificates about
how he stole pairs in his use, like about half
of this work is about this um and it ultimately
compares that event in his life to the story of

(23:16):
Adam and Eve. At the same time, the pair is
often used to represent christ love for humanity, so again
it's like all these different things. The pair has been
used to symbolize throughout throughout history. Pairs were depicted in
art found at Pompeii. Also, of note, pairs were considered

(23:37):
sacred to the Egyptian goddess isis Uh, but that was
not the extent of their role in culture at all. Oh, No,
pairs were so beloved they were frequently depicted in European
art during the Renaissance, including the famous work by Giovanni
Bellini Madonna of the Pair. Leonardo da Vinci, who loved

(23:58):
collecting all kinds of stories and just things. Like he
liked finding good funds and metaphors, he would collect them.
Somewhere in the fourteen and fifteen hundreds, he collected this
story about the pear which I would like to include. Okay,
all right, yeah, The laurel and the myrtle, on seeing
at the pear tree being cut down, cried out in

(24:19):
a loud voice, Oh pear tree, where are you going?
Where is the pride that you had when you were
laden with ripe fruit? Now you will no longer make
shade for us with your thick foliage. The pear tree replied,
I am going with the husbandman who's cutting me down,
and who will take me to the workshop of a
good sculptor, who, by his art will cause me to
assume the form of the God Jove, and I shall

(24:39):
be dedicated in the temple and worshiped by men in
the place of Jove, while you are obliged to remain
always maimed and stripped of your branches, while men shall
set around me in order to do me honor. Wow,
some shade from the pear tree. Yeah, the pear tree
was not done throwing shade, I know, all right, my

(25:02):
my mind, And yeah, they do indeed show up in
a lot of rhymes, puzzles, lyrics, pawns, musical compositions about pairs,
political metaphors, all kinds of things from this time. There's
even like this really long and interesting history I found
about kind of a word puzzle about pairs that's just

(25:22):
existed for so long and no one knows quite at
what it means or where it comes from. That's fascinating. Um.
But I did want to include the specific case of
the pair being used as a political metaphor from the
eighteen hundreds. Um. So, they were these three French caricaturists,
and they used the pair to represent King Louis Philippe

(25:43):
and this pair worked on a whole host of levels. Okay, alright, So,
for instance, they used his initials LP to denote la
poire are the pair, and depicted him with a pair
for a head of hay, which was slang for simpleton
in France at the time. The fact that the pair

(26:07):
was a fruit that would rot was used to represent
his corruption, and the somewhat phallic nature of the fruit
was used to elicit more mockery at his experience. Eventually,
two of the caricaturists were fined and imprisoned for hurting
the dignity of the king. Uh. The one tried to

(26:27):
make the argument unsuccessfully, but I love the attempt that
the king did resemble a pair, and they must jail
all pairs if they were so mad about it. I
love it. I love it. Go ahead and jail all
the pairs if they're so mad that I'm pulling it
out that that's so good. But in French so it

(26:50):
sounds like extra, yeah, extra exactly exactly where is that movie? Anyway?
According to John Gerard's fifty or Ball, I always say
her band, and I'm not sure if that's what it is.
Herbal Herbal pairs were common in England by that time.
One famous Englishman wasn't a fan though Shakespeare. Shakespeare mentioned

(27:15):
pears four times in his works, and every mention was
not favorable towards the pair. And here's my favorite one
from All's Well, that ends, well, your virginity, your old
virginity is like one of our French withered pairs. It
looks ill, it eats dryly. Mary' tis a weathered pair.
It was formerly better Mary, yet tis a withered pair pair. Shakespeare, right, geez,

(27:48):
a lot of ship going on in this one. So
pairs exploded in popularity in France in the sixteenth century,
with sixteen recorded varieties being grown there, though I saw
much higher numbers like up in the two hundreds, higher
numbers of pairs at that time. They were frequently used
in dessert preparations, and I found, like I said, we

(28:11):
could do a whole episode on just this. There was
so much information about what was going on with a
par in France at this time, all of the dishes
they made with it, Oh my goodness, But not today,
not today. The seventeenth century saw another sweeping growth of
pear tree cultivation and popularity in Europe, as showcased by

(28:33):
its inclusion in the eighteenth century song the Twelve Days
of Christmas, which I told you've never really kind of
thought about why it's in there, and cartridge in a
pear tree sar okay, exactly. Well off English folks wanted
a different type of pair for every season. I think
it was called succession, like you had to have one
for the winter, one for like spring, and this was

(28:55):
this whole thing. Um. They were also used to make
ciders and wine. Yeah. Yeah. By the Victorian era in
England into the nineteenth century, um, estate gardens were growing
like fifty to a hundred different types of pears each
uh and so right, they would mature like like throughout

(29:18):
the summer and then ripe in either on the tree
or in storage in succession across a period of months. Uh.
And apparently fresh fruit was really posh during this time,
and fancy tables would serve just fresh fruit for dessert
to like really showcase their gardens. And this is not

(29:40):
the only place where that kind of thing was happening. No.
At the same time, in Japan, more than one and
fifty cultivars were recorded, and according to a few sources
I read, people might put pears on corners to ward
off evil spirits. And I read so much about this too.
Listeners again right in specific corner it was are you
very fascinating? But I would love if anybody has more

(30:02):
information personal experience. During the eighteenth and nineteenth century and
what is now Belgium, over one thousand named varieties of
pears were being grown. I know um America's first recorded
pear tree was planted in sixteen twenty, and many Europeans
were growing them here by the seventeen hundreds. However, the

(30:25):
crop faced several blights that made it difficult to sustain
widespread cultivation. Yeah. Also early crops in America were planted
from seeds. Uh and as with apples, and the similar
thing happened with apples. You can see your Apple episode
about that pear seeds will not grow trees that bear
the exact same kind of fruit as their parents. So

(30:47):
this wound up on the good side, introducing a lot
of genetic variation and in American pears, but it was
a little tricky getting varieties that people wanted at first.
Eventually graphs made it over from Europe. They did flourish
in the climate of the Pacific Northwest. When planted there
in the eighteen hundreds, specifically Washington and Oregon. Pear tree

(31:08):
cultivation only increased in the area after the discovery of
new irrigation techniques. Random fact I found in one of
my mat hort perdue dogument. Accused axe murderer Lizzie Borden
used pears as an alibi in the nineteenth century. She
claimed she'd been eating pears while her father was being murdered,

(31:30):
Like she had one in the morning, she found three
and was enjoying them when all of this was going down.
I could not possibly have done it. I was busy
eating pears. Yeah, who can resist the pars um. Oregon
based company Harry and David's debut their male Order Pairs

(31:51):
in the nineteen thirties, and pairs are Oregon state fruit.
I saw a lot of very proud articles from like
govern are just publications out of Oregon. We're very proud
and fond of the pair. Yeah, why not? Why not?
In the film Gentlemen Preferred Blonde, which is based on

(32:13):
the Yes this is in the pair episode we're introduced
to the lyric men grow cold as girls grow old,
and we all lose our charms in the end, but
square cut our pear shape. These rocks don't lose their shape.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend. Yeah, it's hard not
to sing it. I didn't sing it, especially if you're
as completely enamored with mulin rouge as I am. Um

(32:39):
but uh, oh goodness. I did try looking into the
history of the pear shaped diamond, and uh lore has it.
I couldn't find any academic sources on a very brief
Google search. But lore has it that this shape was
actually goes back to like the fourteen hundreds, like the

(33:02):
mid to late fourteen hundreds, from one of the original
inventors of like gem cutting technology. Um, but who knows.
I don't, I don't. UM. I can tell you that
in the mid nineteen hundreds, pairs were a very popular
canned fruit and still are in especially in institutions like

(33:26):
schools and prisons where there is a need or a
desire to provide inexpensive and shelf stable fruit options. During
the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties, China really stepped up
their production and they now produce a way more pairs
than everybody else in the world combined. H and uh.

(33:49):
Still speaking about canned pairs there, there's been a loss
of interest in canned fruit in general from the general
public um, and also between that and competition from Chinese imports,
it's now has some Pacific Northwest pair canning plants shutting
down entirely these days. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Then again,
we've got a lot of homework assignments for you listeners

(34:11):
in this one. But anybody from the area, give us
a low down on this pair festival, but also just
what's going on with this pad? Yeah, it's a vibe
the pair vibe check. Please. Well, there's so much we
could have covered and included, but we had to draw
the line somewhere. So I think this is about what

(34:33):
we have to say about the pair for now. It is.
We do have some listener mail for you, though, and
we are going to get into that as soon as
we get back from one more quick break for a
word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes,

(34:55):
thank you, and we're back with Listen Opera. I am
pretty sure that what we just did was not operatic
fair points, true enough, It's probably for the best. Yeah,

(35:21):
I just think we shouldn't quit our day jobs. Um,
But yes, okay, so a lot of you have written
about Jill and pickles and it's been fantastic. So Um
Joe wrote your episode on dill reminded me of a relative,
not blood related, but family nonetheless. Okay, this aunt of
mine was a pillar in our community, and I have

(35:42):
many fond memories of all the parties she hosted at
her home. I was quite a picky eater as a
kid there, and one of the things I could always
eat at her house were dill oyster crackers. I could
and would eat them by the handful until the snack
bowl was empty. They were soft, savory, and delicious. After

(36:02):
much begging, she finally gave me the recipe when I
was in high school, and it follows. Take two bags
of oyster crackers and empty them into a large brown
paper bag. Add one packet of dry ranch seasoning, a
teaspoon or two of dry dill, and a few gloves
of olive oil. Fold the bag clothes, and give everything
a good shake to distribute flavoring. Enjoy side note, I

(36:23):
wonder how this would taste with fresh dill. Time to experiment.
Thanks for bringing back these memories of my aunt. She
passed away a few years ago. But alongside the recipe,
I have also inherited her cookbook collection, cookbooks that she
would buy as souvenirs of her travels abroad. I'll have
to pick one out and cook her recipe soon as
a tribute to her. Oh uh, that is the most

(36:46):
amazing type of travel souvenir I've ever heard of. I
love that, Yes, yes, And I love just picking out
a recipe and paying tribute because I do. Every time
I look at like my grandmother's cookbooks or something, there's
just especially if it's got like a little note or
some flour and it's like the corners folded down. You
can just think of them looking through this and feel

(37:09):
that connection with them. Now I'm here and I'm doing it.
I love it. I think that's great. Also, that recipe
sounds delicious for the dill oyster crackers. Yeah, I am
going like, I don't have any of those things handy,
but we could get them. Yeah, heck, okay, right m

(37:30):
hm uh Sabina. So Sabina, I'm not totally sure how
to pronounce it. Let me know how I'm messing it up. Yes,
they wrote, I just listened to your episode about dill
and in the beginning, you spoke about this big German
tradition of hiding pickles in the Christmas tree. Except there
is no such tradition, or is there. I heard about

(37:54):
it the first time when I was away into my
marriage with an American, when American relative bought me one
as a gift, and I just stared at them, questioning
myself how I could ask them politely, why on earth
I should put a cucumber in my tree or why
on earth I should hide it? Oh, these Americans. Um.
I heard about this so called old German tradition every

(38:16):
now and then, but only today researched it. So there
is a region in Germany called ho I. I looked
this up and I'm still not sure Thuringia curringin. I
got two very different pronunciations from Miriam Webster. Uh. But
yes there's a region, uh. Continuing It is basically in

(38:38):
the middle of no of Germany. Um. And they have
a tradition of glass blowing. And now the legends start.
One says that a German American soldier who fought in
the American Revolution got captured and so sick that everyone
feared he would die. His last wish was for a
pickle uh and that gave him so much stre that

(39:00):
he recovered out of sheer thankfulness. He put a pickle
every year in his Christmas tree. The one who found
it had luck the next year. Another legend says in
the seventeenth century, a lot of people were so poor
that they didn't have the money to put ornaments in
the Christmas tree, so they put things in it that
they could eat, apples, cookies, and in this area, apparently pickles,

(39:21):
because they had a long tradition there. Um in the
nineteenth century glassblower made them as glass ornaments and sold
them in this region. However, it is safe to say
that pickles in the Christmas tree may be an old
tradition of one special, slightly ignored region of Germany until
the Americans brought it back to us. By the way,

(39:43):
our gurka is still in our tree every year, just
because it came from relatives, and when we see it
in centree, we think about them. Yeah, I love. And
now when I am putting this ornament up or my
little brother, because it's his ornament here, I will tell
him all these tales. That's what it's like. Fun times,

(40:09):
fun stories all around. Yeah, yeah, no, I font fonts
of information, so either fun or insufferable parties, depending on
what kind of parties you enjoy. Exactly exactly, but I
love this. Thank you for turning into it and sharing
with us. Yes, and thanks to both of you for writing.

(40:31):
If you would like to write to as listeners, you
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(40:53):
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way