[gentle music] [Capri] Just below the slopes of Mt.

Hood, an Oregon tradition is in full swing.

And this particular harvest is one of the sweetest nature has to offer.

That is good.

Oregonians are proud of their state fruit and bring the bounty of their harvest to the table in a variety of ways.

I can tell just by looking at these ingredients that we're going to have that sweet and savory in every bite of this pizza.

[woman] It just makes the pizza magic.

Mmm.

[Capri] Fresh, fermented or even distilled, the pear's versatility is highlighted by value-added products that have garnered international attention.

It smells like sunshine in a glass.

And no matter what form the end product takes... ...this fruit knows how to bring the entire community together.

We have pear galettes, so it's going to be a pear party.

[woman] It is going to be a pear party.

[Capri] Oh, my gosh.

I'm Capri Cafaro and I'm on a mission to uncover the incredible stories of the foods we grow... ...harvest, create... ...and celebrate.

Beautiful, amazing meal.

So, I'm traveling America's backroads to learn our cherished food traditions from those who make them possible... Look at that.

...and are helping keep them alive.

There is so much more to learn.

[man] It's just a tradition here in this area.

[gunshot] [woman] Mmm hmm.

[Capri] On "America the Bountiful."

[announcer] America's farmers have nourished us for generations, but today they face unprecedented challenges.

American Farmland Trust works with farmers to help save the land that sustains us.

Together we can work to keep America bountiful.

[gentle music] [Capri] While Oregon grows over a third of the United States' pears, they're not native to the area.

They arrived by wagon along the famous Oregon Trail in the mid-19th century.

Since those first few trees, farmers discovered the soil and climate were a perfect match for the fruit, and the amount of trees grew until the state decided pears should be named the state fruit in 2005.

While pears are grown throughout the entire state, it's in the area surrounding Mt.

Hood that this delicate fruit has found an ideal home in an area lovingly named The Fruit Loop.

Gordy Sato has known pear farming his entire life.

He is the third generation in his family to farm this 160 acre orchard in Parkdale.

Why is Oregon so well-suited for growing pears?

[Gordy] The climate, and we have all this volcanic soil which the pear tree really, really needs.

And the other thing about where I am in Parkdale is that we have cool nights and warm days and Anjou trees, love that.

So, tell me a little bit about the process of growing these pears and then harvesting.

[Gordy] Well, it's a year long process.

Springtime is the most important part because it's typically when our crop is.

We go through a process of thinning.

What Romero is doing now is harvesting the bartletts.

But we thin the bartlett so that we get the perfect big pear, which is what we want: big and perfect.

So, this is the first pear of the season, and it's a summer pear-- [Capri] Oh, I want this.

--which turns bright yellow when it gets ripe.

So, the pear has to be hand-picked.

We can't pick it with a machine.

I can see that.

So, Romero's picking them by hand and he'll put about 40 pounds of pears into that bag.

And he's up and down a 12-foot ladder, so it's dangerous.

But these guys work hard all day, and a good picker can pick 9 to 10 bins, which is about 1,200 pounds of pears.

And how much do you get during each season usually?

Well, this year we're going to have a record crop of maybe 7,000 bins and each bin is 1,200 pounds.

So, how much is that?

A 1.4 million pounds?

[Capri] Wow, that hurts.

That's too much math for me, but that sounds like a lot of pears.

[Gordy] It is.

Now, I know that Romero's picking a lot here off the tree, but you can't just take one off the tree and eat it, right?

No, pears are a fruit that you have to pre-ripen.

And even the bartlett that he's picking now is rock hard.

So, we want you to take them home, put them in a paper bag for a couple of days with a banana, press the top of the stem, and that's how you'll know it's ripe.

[Capri] Well listen, I'm willing to wait for a good pear.

[Gordy] Okay, good.

But I'm hoping that you might have some that are pre-ripened.

We have some for you to taste today.

And actually, they're Anjou and red Anjou, which are left over from last year.

And we're picking today gem, which is the new variety, so I want you to taste that as well.

[Capri] Gordy grows seven different varieties of pears here and ships them all over the world.

They're picked before they're fully ripe because pears ripen from the inside out and the internal structure breaks down very quickly, making them difficult to handle.

Once at the processing plant, the fruit is inspected for size, shape and any defects before being cleaned, packaged and stored in a warehouse kept just above freezing.

This is to ensure they don't ripen before they reach the consumer.

Gordy, we've got a lot of different pears here.

-We do.

-And they look different.

You know, we got different colors.

I'm assuming different varieties.

There's two different groups of pears.

There's the summer pears.

We have the red crimson, which could just picked.

[Capri] Oh, wow.

And the Bartlett, which we just picked.

And then we have the winter pears, which are the red Anjou, the green Anjou, the bosc, and the comice.

But taste this.

This is from last year's crop.

This is the red Anjou and this is the green Anjou.

It's very mild.

It's not particularly sweet.

Mmm hmm.

Taste the green one.

This will be sweeter.

Okay, so that's the red and this is the green.

You're right.

This is actually-- This pear in my head is the pear taste that I associate with, "This is what a pear is supposed to taste like."

You know, this is why this is so fun, because you get to learn about these different varieties.

We have to appreciate where our food comes from.

Exactly.

It's not just from the grocery store.

It comes from folks like you.

And you obviously know what you're doing.

You've been doing this for a while.

Well, hopefully.

My family came here in the early 1900s from Japan.

They were farmers over there, but they were looking for a better life and more land.

My father and his sisters were born in the house that I now live in.

-Unbelievable.

-And then the war broke out.

So, when the Japanese were interned in World War II, all the Japanese were interned for five years, so they were removed from their farm.

We were really lucky.

Our neighbors took care of the farm like their own and gave it back after the war.

And a lot of the Japanese lost their farm because they didn't have great neighbors like we did.

So, that was really, really tough.

So, for me to be living in my grandparents' house is such a legacy for me.

Well, you have a lot to be proud of, and your story is one that is both, sort of the dark side of American history, but also the best of America as well, with neighbors taking over and being able to have all this beauty and success, and being able to carry that tradition on for generations.

And there's so much incredible fruit to enjoy.

And you don't just have to eat it off a plate, eat it as a raw fruit.

I know you have something up your sleeve that you like to do some creative stuff with your pears too.

Well, I did create a pear ginger martini.

Only because I like to have fun and I like to use pears, so.

Have fun?

Gordy.

I'm glad you called me because I'm ready to have fun too.

I had to write my recipe down because we usually make it by the pitchers.

-Oh.

-But nevertheless.

-Okay, I'll make you one.

-Don't skimp now.

Okay, so let's start with a little bit of soda.

I wanted to make it a little bit spicier.

[Capri] What's your spicy secret?

We played around with it.

Okay, so I added vodka, and then let's see.

We need some pear juice.

So, we have soda.

We have vodka.

We have pear juice.

And a little bit of ginger.

Oh, that's a kick.

-I love it.

-This is so great.

And I find that ginger and pear actually goes really well together.

It goes really well together, not only in a cocktail, but... -Baked goods.

-Baked goods.

-Yep.

-And a little bit of lemon.

And then the last thing that will add a little bit of kick, this is vodka that I soaked habanero peppers in.

[laughing] So, that is habanero infused vodka.

The icing on the pear cake.

Yes.

Let's shake this thing up.

Okay.

Okay.

And then we have to have a pear slice in there, right?

So, let's have the red crimson, which is what we just-- And we put a little bit of cayenne pepper on it.

So, it's habanero, the vodka, cayenne as a dash.

Yes, yes.

There's a lot happening here.

Good luck, honey.

-Thank you.

-Cheers.

I don't need a luck.

I'm a tough cookie.

That is good.

Wow.

That is good.

I love that.

It's that little bit of kick.

You need if you like heat.

That heat and sweet, I love that balance.

Listen, I am so thankful for you to host me out here, so I want to propose a toast to you, your family, the heritage that has brought the pears to the table today.

[Gordy] And our amazing workforce.

[Capri] Of course, all of the people out there working so hard to put these pears on our table.

[Gordy] Thank you.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

Cheers to you and cheers to them.

[gentle music] [Capri] While many growers in the region send the entirety of their crop to the processing plant, a select few have begun offering dining experiences on their farms as interest in agritourism has grown steadily in recent years.

Such is the case with farmer and chef Katrina McAlexander and her partner Kenny Galloway, who grow pears along with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

Katrina uses her pears to make ciders, wine, and now a legendary pizza featuring pear slices and gorgonzola cheese.

I'm so excited to get started on this because let's face it, who doesn't love pizza?

Right.

So, what do we got here today?

Today, we're doing the most popular farm-to-table pizza we make, the pear pizza, and today we're using our red Anjou pear.

[Capri] Oh, yum.

All right, let's get started.

I want in on the action.

So, we've already put some semolina on yours, but I'm going to hand you your dough and I'm going to put a little on mine.

So, now we are preparing the pie.

We're just kind of like using the weight of gravity to let the dough stretch.

And pizza dough wants to stretch.

Oh, look at my mine.

Mine's like a serious stretch right now.

Really going for it.

And we're kind of aiming for round, but the beauty of pizza, it doesn't have to be beautiful to be delicious.

That is true.

-Beautiful.

-Love it.

Yeah, like a natural over there.

So, the next things we're going to do is we're going to make a circle of olive like this, olive oil, and then we're going to, with our hands, use it to spread it over the pizza.

I'm going to make a smiley face.

Well, that didn't work out so well.

The next thing we're going to do is we're going to chop some of these red Anjous into some slices.

You want to cut them in half first and then basically take your knife to make little wedges like this.

This is not the first time you've sliced a pear.

I can tell.

Yeah.

For me, pears go in everything.

So, I'm going to hand you these pears and then we're going to slowly kind of start bringing them all over the pie.

Thank you.

So, it's a little pear art.

Yes.

Yeah.

Which pizza, of course, makes a great canvas for whatever is in season.

That's why we do it right here on our farm.

Looking good over there.

[Capri] Thank you.

Well, I am a lover of pizza like everybody else.

And I got to tell you, that sweet and savory is one of my favorite things.

So, what's our next part of this taste alchemy?

Yeah.

So, the next thing we're going to do is we're going to put slices of bacon on it.

[Capri] Oh!

[Katrina] It really, just the blend of the bacon and the pear is just lovely.

Our next step is we've already pre-cooked them, but we're going to use these caramelized onions and do the same thing to top our pizza.

Fantastic.

Love, love, love.

Now, is there a specific reason why you use the red Anjou as opposed to another bartlett or a bosc?

Great question.

You can totally use any pear you would like, but it's just more beautiful.

I mean, I think the red just kind of pops.

Yeah.

But we use bosc pears, bartlett pears.

We use concord pears.

So, now it's time to think cheese.

So, we're going to hit it with our mozzarella now.

And the thing with mozzarella that I want you to be mindful of is you actually don't want it to be really thick.

You want to kind of sprinkle it the way we just did the other ingredients or it gets too heavy.

Makes sense.

[Capri] So, it is a delicate dough.

So, you kind of want to hit it like this.

[Capri] A lot of times that's what we're used to is just like, a glob of cheese, and hey, there's nothing wrong with a glob of cheese, but I feel like pear is the star of the show here, too.

[Katrina] That's right.

Perfect.

A natural.

So, the next thing we're going to do is we're going to finish it with our gorgonzola.

And this just is what brings the whole thing together.

It ties the room together.

This is like what brings it home.

[chuckle] And that's, you know, gorgonzola is a little bit stronger of a cheese.

You know, it's got a kick.

All right, so now that we've built this beautiful pizza canvas, what happens next?

So, we'll go ahead and stick it in the oven.

[Capri] The pizzas are baked at 600 degrees for about 5 to 10 minutes.

[Katrina] When it's done, we will take it out.

We usually hit it with parmesan after that.

[Capri] Nice.

[Katrina] And then we hit it with a reduced balsamic drizzle.

[Capri] This looks incredible.

[Katrina] Absolutely.

So, one thing unique about our farm is we make an all-pear peary cider.

You can only use the word peary if it's a 100% pear.

Really?

And we try to use more of an heirloom pear like the concord pear or something like that.

So, I'm excited for you to try it.

Yeah.

I want to know why an heirloom pear for this.

Well, you could use like, Anjou.

You could use what we just made.

I just think it gives it a different, more brighter flavor in your mouth or refreshing, and then it's more of the traditional style pear to use.

You don't really find a lot of pear ciders of pure pears.

I mean, I've definitely seen apple pear ciders, but it's just unique to have it all pear cider.

-I'm going to give it a shot.

-All right.

Oh, my gosh.

I tasted dry.

It doesn't go-- But it's still-- It's a little tart on the back of my my tongue.

I love it.

Yeah, I actually love it.

Cheers.

Cheers.

-To pear farmers.

-To pear farmers.

Let's like, before we get too far in, I got to dig in to this pizza.

Mmm.

All the flavors in there.

Saltiness of the bacon, the caramelized onion with that sweetness.

And then the peary kind of helps because there isn't a lot of acidity in this pie.

You get it from your drink.

So, it kind of is like a palate cleanser every time you drink it.

Now, not all farms do something like this.

What made you decide that you were going to expand your horizons?

I think my hope was to create a sustainable business so our farm could carry on for the next generation.

And then I love being creative, so I think I started making hard cider in college.

I did my first batch with just like an unpasteurized gallon of cider.

Shook it up, added yeast, put it under my bed, and before I knew it, I made-- Oh!

That's a different way.

--my first batch of hard cider.

-That's awesome.

-And I thought, you know what?

I didn't like a lot of the ciders on the market because they were so fake tasting.

You're right.

I wanted something that tasted like the actual fruit.

Like, you can taste pear in this.

Yep.

[Katrina] And then at a tasting room, nowadays people want to have something that they can eat alone alongside what they're drinking.

[Katrina] We've got our signature pear pizza.

Dive in.

Bon appetite.

So, pizza, I thought that would be a great combination.

We could put whatever we're growing on the farm.

And so that's how it all came to be.

[Capri] That is great.

And you know, I love the fact that you're doing something that's creative but also makes a difference for your team and your employees being able to earn a little extra and provide a living wage, too, which is incredibly important.

[Katrina] Yeah, I think that it's challenging in some ways to live in farming communities, so this is what we've been doing to try to help our whole community rise with us.

[Capri] Well, here's to rising with you and with this community.

[Capri] From pears on a pizza to pears in a bottle.

Caitlin Bartlemay is the head distiller at Clear Creek Distillery, and she makes a variety of European style, barrel aged fruit spirits, including a pear brandy, or eau de vie, the French term for the aromatic spirit.

Not only is Caitlin using Oregon bartletts, but she's helping all of the rejected pears from the consumer processing plant find a higher calling.

[Caitlin] These look a little worse for wear, but they're the ugly fruit.

They're the pears that people would be less likely to pick off a shelf at the grocery store.

But they taste just as good, right?

[Caitlin] They taste exactly the same.

Good news is, waste not, want not.

Absolutely.

You can use these, you know, the ugly fruit, like you said, and put it to good use in something that is really an interesting type of spirit.

Yeah.

Which, like I said, I was not particularly familiar with, but it comes from a European tradition.

So, eau de vies and brandies have longstanding European roots.

It's an agricultural product.

It was the last thing that you would do in the harvest season.

So, you would be growing all of your fruits and your vegetables.

You would be getting to, around this time of year, the fall, and pears, fruit, they don't hold over through the winter very well.

And so, the last thing that you did was turn it into cider and then distill it.

And so it was really the final step in the agricultural process.

Every farmer would have a still and they would be turning the leftovers of their fruit, of their ciders, into brandy.

Now, how how does it actually turn from this to something you can drink?

I mean, you got a lot of contraptions around you.

They got to do something special.

Absolutely.

So, these are our four German pot stills.

They're Arnold Holstein stills.

They each hold 60 gallons of fermented mash.

So, once the pears have finished fermenting, we would go ahead and pump that material into this still, fill it all the way to the door-- Right.

--and turn the boiler on.

The boiler then heats this bottom jacket.

And because alcohol boils at a lower boiling point than water, the alcohol vapors starts coming off of that liquid first.

[Capri] Right.

[Caitlin] As it travels through the still, each one of these windows is a smaller distillation.

It's a phase change between liquid and vapor.

Wow, you know, I expected it to be like, knock me over.

It's actually...

It's actually quite nice and I'm surprised.

You've surprised me.

I want to be able to actually taste some, so I hope you have some that is ready to taste.

Oh, of course.

We never run out of pear brandy here.

[Capri] The founder of Clear Creek, Steve McCarthy, said that he learned a special technique from eau de vie makers in France that the company continues to this day.

They insert pear blossoms into bottles and then hang the bottles on trees through the growing season, letting the pear grow inside the bottle, leading to a visually unique result.

Okay, I have never seen anything like this before.

This is a beautiful specimen.

Yeah.

So, then you add the pear brandy when it's done to the pear in the bottle?

Yeah, they're pulled off the trees.

They go through a cleaning process to make sure that the whole inside of the bottle, the outside of the pear is spick and span, and then we add just our regular pear brandy on top of it.

The pear will last forever, as far as we know, as long as it's covered in the brandy.

Well, I'm sure it taste as good as it looks, so I'm ready.

So, like we said, it's bottled to 80 proof.

So, it's 80 proof pure hood river sunshine in a bottle.

It's the best way to share bartlett pears, which are fairly fragile, with the entire world is in pear brandy.

All right.

Oh, my gosh, this is incredibly aromatic.

It smells like sunshine in a glass.

Yeah.

That is good.

I wasn't sure what to expect.

There's definitely no sugar in it, but the sweetness of the ethanol and the overwhelming amount of bartlett pear flavor and aroma that comes through-- Twenty pounds.

--your body finds a way to like, find that sweetness that it's looking for in the glass.

[Capri] Mmm hmm.

Well, you can't fake a good thing.

And you know what?

Doing the right thing is never a wrong way to approach things, right?

So, let's have a little toast to that.

[Caitlin] Absolutely.

Toast to the past.

It's a rich past and a rich future for some really incredible pear brandy and all those fruit brandies here.

Cheers.

-Thank you for having me.

-Cheers.

[Capri] While Clear Creek has perfected one way to add value to the delicious liquid pears hold... ...Poppy orchardist Steve Masingila is showing his neighbors another.

Every fall, the Masingila family invites the community to their home in Hubbard to share the bounty of their harvest.

Whether that's through the raw fruit itself, fresh pressed juice in Steve's homemade press, or his wife's Mary's famous pear galette.

A galette is essentially a rustic pie made without a pie dish.

First, Mary makes a pie-like crust and then adds bartlett pear slices coated with clear gel, a modified cornstarch that thickens cool liquids, mixed with sugar and nutmeg.

She then bakes for 25 to 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

Steve brought his love of pears with him from Kenya, where he grew up and where his family grew pears.

He and Mary now have 25 acres of pear trees in their yard, but not a single one will be sold.

They donate their fruit to food banks and schools, and also invite people from the community to participate in harvests like today, where a group is picking fruit for juicing.

I'm so excited.

This is something that I have never seen before.

And I take it this contraption is a juicer.

Yes, this is the juicer.

So, we will go ahead and I'll start putting some pears in here.

Okay.

I'll start with these ones right here.

So, the switch is over here.

[Capri] All right.

[juicer motor starts] [Capri] Wow.

All the way full, we will press it down.

I see.

[Steve] Do you want to try it?

[Capri] Yeah.

I mainly just hold this up so that it doesn't, you know, it doesn't smash too much on me.

Now it's all in.

Whoo!

Whoo!

This is-- I mean, talk about fresh.

[Steve] Yeah.

Yeah.

It does not get any fresher than this.

[Steve] Exactly.

So, yeah, we're going to pour it.

We use a cheesecloth to filter some of the big pieces off that.

[Capri] Right.

Makes sense.

Once everyone has a turn dodging pear shrapnel while juicing the fruit, Mary serves her galettes alongside the fresh juice.

I cannot wait to dig into this.

Oh, my gosh.

Mmmm.

This is really good.

It is so good.

I mean, there's nothing that can possibly replace a fresh pear.

Yeah.

Kudos to you.

[Mary] Thank you.

You can tell you've done this before.

You grow this fruit from the heart and then you give it from the heart too.

So, I want to thank you, and thank you for welcoming me.

How's this galette?

-Delicious.

-Yeah?

What about the juice?

Thank you for welcoming me here into your community.

You're so welcome.

We're glad you came.

[Capri] The welcoming and generous spirit of the Masingila family is a comfort not only felt but tasted.

It's an ever present sweetness found not only in the fruit grown from Oregon's volcanic soil, or in its unique orchard-borne delicacies and experiences, but in the eyes of Oregonians themselves.

But why take my word for it, when you can come experience it for yourself.

America The Bountiful is waiting for you and me.

For more information visit Americathebountifulshow.com.

[announcer] America's farmers have nourished us for generations, but today they face unprecedented challenges.

American Farmland Trust works with farmers to help save the land that sustains us.

Together we can work to keep America bountiful.