July 13, 2025

Food for Thought’s Great Lakes Pear Organic Preserves

Tastemaker
By Lynda Wheatley | Feb. 3, 2018

Every September Leelanau County organic farmer Gene Garthe drops off a 600-pound box of fresh-picked Bosc Pears. The folks at Honor’s Food for Thought peels and dices each precious fruit, then transforms the lot into a limited number of Great Lakes Pear organic preserves. The lightly textured and softly sweet golden goods FFT calls old world preserves, we call other worldly. But most recently, the Good Foods Awards upped us all, naming the product a 2018 winner in our region’s preserve category. Maybe that doesn’t seem like a big deal — until you learn FFT was one of 1,138 companies who entered the contest (judged by 250 food crafters, chefs, farmers, journalists, retailers, and thought leaders), and its preserves made it through both a blind taste test and sustainability vetting before earning that big blue ribbon. Well, maybe we are making too much of it. After all, FFT’s Blueberry Lavender won last year. $8.75 per jar. Buy and find retailers at: www.foodforthought.net

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