Pearic awakening

From the age of 14, I have been a member of the working class. My first job was as a "utility clerk" (AKA bagboy) at Pick 'n' Save grocers in Burlington, WI. Burlington was a small town, as you might imagine, though not far from the sophisticated metropolis of Milwaukee, and as a young man, I had a fairly small view of the world. My favorite fruits were gigantic, likely-GMO navel oranges and red delicious apples, with their wax-coated skins and milquetoast flavors. I don't think I ever knew anything else, to be honest. I'll never forget the first fall season that I worked at Pick 'n' Save as the dawning of my profound appreciation of quality fruits. My friend Scott, who also later got me into punk and Magic: the Gathering, was a produce department employee and was shocked when he heard that I had never tried an Asian pear. "Seriously?!," he cried, as he gently removed the foam mesh sheath from about the golden, spherical pear, just as seductively as a silk stocking. As I took my first crisp, juicy bite of the pear, I knew my life had changed for good.

From that day, my appreciation for both exotic fruit (ever tried a durian?) as well as fruit produced by people who care about more than just blasting out crate after crate of identical "product" have both grown exponentially. I have been blessed with a brother who was a buyer for a co-op fruit market, access to farmer's markets across the years which have offered exceptional apples, pears, and peaches, and even today have friends working for companies who try to bring locally produced fruit into office environments, along with awareness thereof, as a healthy alternative to sacks full of Utz or Snickers. The array of fine fruits upon which I feasted over the years is hard to match!

The one thing, however, that can at least compare to the luscious flavor experience of that first Asian pear is our seasonal, scrumptious Asian Pear sorbetto. It captures both the clean, crisp, and subtle flavor of the Asian pear as well as the wonderful texture, inhabiting the space between the soft suppleness of a ripe D'anjou and the crisp bite of a Honeycrisp apple. C'mon in over the next few weeks and join me in the rapture of flavor, a rare transcendental fruit experience!