Life isn’t always pretty or tidy or neat. What life hands you can be even less so. It is what you make of life, how you take what you’re handed and make something beautiful or lovely or remarkable. Two weeks ago, I got two buckets full of sand pears. This is not an eating pear. It is a cooking pear, if you are committed to frugal food and locavore ideas. It is a cooking pear if you have a grandmother who made use of what she was given. Around these parts, sand pears are what people feed their horses. These ugly, rough skinned, gritty pears are not appealing as would be a gleaming strawberry or fully ripe peach. They’re less appealing than the purple eggplants. This pear will not catch your eye and beckon you to eat it immediately. It require a bit of manipulation. But when you make the effort, the reward is the most delicious fruit preserves.
An apple corer makes quick work of removing the peels. 
Cubed for the food processor
Add fresh pineapple, sugar and a cinnamon stick and boil for 40 minutes
And you end up with this golden prize
