(Im)Perfect Pear

When we were growing up, we had a mini orchard of fruit trees in our backyard. My brother and I would scramble up these trees to play in, hide in and of course- eat from. Of our fruit tree family, all that is left is a single pear tree. This tree still produces an abundance of the crispiest, tastiest, green pears I have ever had. I eat them, my mom eats them, my mother's neighbors come to eat them, Ezra looks forward to autumn so he can collect his "crunchy pears" to snack on, and on occasion we have even sent some home with family to other states.

They really are good.

The strangest thing about our much loved pear tree- is that at some point, it lost its trunk. Our perfectly producing pear tree is completely hollow.

It hasn't always been this way- it has supported generations of children climbing up & sliding down it...pulling on its limbs and taking its fruit....Our little pear tree completely reminds me of Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree..."Come, Boy, come and climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and eat apples and play in my shade and be happy...." (Except that you eat pears.)

And now that it has given so much, and is so much more than a stump, (as it really doesn't have one anymore...) it just keeps on giving.

The picture below, those leaves in the middle- they are on the other side of the tree. (The side you shouldn't be able to see from the picture side of the tree I mean.)


Dare I say our little tree is pear-fect...?

My Giving Tree.