This fall, my husband, Jack, and I visited Oregon to attend yet another dental course. Dental courses are Jack’s passion. The course was to take place in Portland, but my passion – food and all that goes with it – had to be satisfied as well.
To realize this goal, we started by taking a trek to Medford, Ore., in the beautiful Rogue Valley. Medford is four hours south of Portland by car and the home of Harry & David, a premium food and gift producer and retailer known worldwide for its famous Royal Riviera pears. Its products are sold in its retail stores, online and through direct mail. Harry & David also sells its wares under the brands Wolferman’s and Cushman’s.
The product lines from these three brands include gift baskets, chocolates, candies, baked goods, their famous Moose Munch popcorn treats, wine, fruit and flowers. Harry & David delivers to Canada, and its products are kosher. Products, gift baskets and fruit can be found here.
The Harry & David factory tour, the reason we were in Medford, must be booked ahead by telephone and costs $5 upon arrival at the Harry & David country store. Along with the tour information, you receive a $5 voucher to use in the store after the tour. I was really excited to be attending the tour.
We were met by our tour guide, ushered aboard a charming little bus and whisked a short ride away to the Harry & David “campus.” Our guide has been with Harry & David for her whole career. She explained that she started out years ago on the production floor working with the pears, and over the years, she learned everything there is to know about Harry & David and its campus.
Harry and David were born to southern Oregon Jews living there in the early 1900s. Surrounded by their pear orchards, the brothers decided to create the brilliantly lucrative “Fruit of the Month” club as well as mail order fruit and assorted gift baskets. Their venture grew to an indescribably huge size. From the bus, our guide showed us that the campus contains a pear orchard, flower gardens and many huge buildings. She said similar Royal Riviera pear orchards are located throughout Oregon. The reason is that if some act of nature, such as insects, hail, drought or flooding, affects an orchard in one or two areas, there will still be hope of a good harvest in the other orchards. The pears are harvested in September and put into cold storage. They do not ripen until at least December, so they are perfect to pack in gift baskets or send out in boxes for the holiday season.
The on-site flower gardens are now open to the public. Guests are invited to cut their own bouquet.
Each huge building on the campus has a different purpose, and the buildings we toured had a viewing gallery where we could watch and learn.
We started at the fruit processing plant, which is used for cleaning, weighing, separating, inspecting and then packing the pears. An amazing computerized conveyor belt, holding hundreds of single pears, each in a pocket-like mechanism, moves along and weighs each pear. Then a pear is dropped into the appropriate bin where it is inspected, then packed. The pears that do not pass inspection are either donated where needed or used to make cider. We were told Harry & David is a green company and all the boxes are from recycled paper and made on site.
We bused to the next building and walked in the door to enjoy the amazing smell of chocolate. Here we saw chocolate truffles being made. As we moved along we saw several different types of cookies, coconut macaroons and assorted squares being baked. We continued our tour and got to observe machines that stood two stories high, making popcorn. Meanwhile, nearby in huge cauldrons, the rich, sweet and savoury, buttery caramel was being cooked until just right. The popcorn was spilled out into baskets that hung from the conveyor belt and moved to fill a tank above the cauldron of caramel. The popcorn tank emptied into the caramel mixture and was mechanically stirred then poured out onto another belt that carried it to packaging. If your mouth was not watering when you went in, it would be now!
The last stop was the building where gift basket production is done.
We found the process fascinating. It was explained that the employees, many of whom have been there for 35 years and more and are extremely qualified, still attend “gift basket packing” classes each year. This is because the design of the baskets, the contents and the containers change each year.
These expert packers assemble thousands of identical baskets, each exactly the same as the one before and the one after. Each measure of tissue paper, plastic wrap and ribbon, each fold of packing material, every angle of the products placed in the basket, and each bow tied and decorative garnish attached is exactly the same as you see it in the catalogue or online! Amazing!
On the bus ride back to the Harry & David country store, our guide pointed out shipping and administrative buildings, box-making factories, cold storage buildings, flower warehouses, Internet and telephone ordering facilities, and there were many more buildings still undiscovered.
Of course, as with any tour, we ended up in the “gift shop.” But the Harry & David country store is much more than that. It’s a complete supermarket with fruits, vegetables, dairy products and such. I had a great time looking at everything and deciding what wonderful Harry & David products I could fit into my suitcase – after all, I have a big family to feed. I decided on an assortment of small boxes of Moose Munch, boxes of assorted chocolates, some interesting spice mixes and several varieties of dry soup mixes. I thought that I chose a well-rounded assortment of products for us to try at home.
Pear, fig and cranberry tart
This tart is a classic French pastry-inspired dessert that starts with a buttery, flaky melt-in-your-mouth crust. Hidden beneath the crunchy topping are sweet figs. Top with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream. Or serve cooled to room temperature and topped with a dollop of fresh cream that has been whipped with a touch of icing sugar and a drizzle of pure vanilla or your favourite fruit liqueur.
Pie
o 1 cup dried figs (5-1/2 oz.), stemmed and quartered
o 1 cup water
o 1/4 cup plus 1/4 cup sugar, plus 1/2 tbsp. more for sprinkling
o 1 tsp. pure vanilla
o 6 medium Bosc pears
o 2 tbsp. cornstarch
o 1/2 cup reduced sugar dried cranberries
o 1/2 package of puff pastry, thawed and chilled
Streusel
o 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
o 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
o 1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces.
Prepare a 10 inch spring form pan lined with parchment paper
Combine figs, water and 1/4 cup sugar in a small saucepan; add vanilla. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Cook until figs are soft, about 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer figs to a small bowl and set aside. Continue simmering syrup until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 10 minutes more. Let cool.
Peel, quarter and core pears, then thinly slice crosswise, place in a large bowl and toss gently with cornstarch,1/4 cup of remaining sugar, reserved figs, cranberries and syrup. Mix until combined.
Make the streusel crumb topping by mixing the flour and brown sugar together with a fork in a medium bowl. Then mix in the butter with a fork, stirring and blending until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Put aside.
Place a cookie sheet in the bottom third of the oven; preheat oven to 400. Fit the piece of puff pastry dough into the spring form pan. Trim any excess pastry and, using a fork, crimp pastry edges up the side of the pan. Spoon in pear mixture. Top the pie with the crumb topping, place on the cookie sheet in the preheated oven and bake for 40-45 minutes until the crust is a deep golden brown and the filling bubbles. Cool on a rack before serving warm, or refrigerate when cooled. Remove spring form pan and parchment paper before serving.