Dipping apples and challah in honey symbolizes our wish for
sweetness and goodness during the coming year.
This year, we had a new fruit to dip: an Asian pear. I’ve seen them in stores many times, but don’t recall buying one; they cost $1 or more apiece! They look like apples but are crunchy, juicy and sweet like pears. They are also called Apple Pear, Chinese pear, or Sand Pear. Thought to originally come to the United States via Chinese immigrants, most Asian Pears are now grown in California, Oregon, and Washington. Their color may vary from yellow to brown, and their skin may be smooth or speckled. Some of the most popular varieties generally can be described as: Hosui (Golden Russet Brown), Kosui (Golden Russet), Nijiseiki or Twentieth Century (Yellow-Green), Shinseiki (Yellow), Shinsui (Russet Brown).
Each pear comes protected by a lacy hat!
Shana Tova!
After all these years I can recognize a few Hebrew letters!
Remember that you read from right to left and the vowels are usually not written.
The placement of the dot over “shin” means it’s pronounced “sh.”
The letter “nun” is pronounced with an N-sound.
The letter “he” is called “hay” and is pronounced “ha.”
The letter “tet” is pronounced with a T-sound.
The dot over “vav” indicates that it is a long vowel (in this case “O”).
The letter “bet” is pronounced as a “V” (though if it has a dot in the middle it’s pronounced as a “B”).
Read from right to left: “sh-n-ha . t-O-v-ha”
shana=year; tova=good wishes
And here is my name.
The letter “tet” has a triangle of dots under it to indicate the short vowel “e.”
The letter “shin” has a dot over the left side, so it is pronounced with an S-sound.
Thanks to Mr. Tess for the tutorial and to this site.
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Ah Asian pears… We just got some from a friend but they weren’t ripe yet… :(
Sherry,
It was your post about the apple pear that made me think of buying one.
I think this fruit is really a pear, and if yours are not ripe, don’t worry. Pears will continue to ripen after they are picked. We used to have a seckel pear tree in our yard and I’d pick the mature fruit before frost and they ripened just fine on the counter. They were very small and sweet fruits.
I just wanted to drop by and mention how great your blog looks. It’s really been evolving through time and I hadn’t said anything about it before.
I love the pears, btw, but I get a little irked at the wasteful foam jackets. They’re on a lot of fruit and veggies here!
Orchid,
Thanks. That means a lot.
The jackets don’t come on many other fruits here. The packaging that bothers me is the wooden crates clementines are packed in. I work at sort of a recycling store, and in season, there are stacks and stacks of them—so many that we offer them for free.
Great information and thank you for the Hebrew lesson. I will have to check out the website you provided for more.