Flavorful, sweet local tastes of fall

We've still got a few winter pears from the tree out back, and, because I've been super busy this year, I just bought a quart of black walnut meats.  They have a pungent, earthy taste and smell unlike anything else in this world.

I was given a quart of wild honey harvested from Drip Rock a weekend or two ago.  I swear it's the best honey I've ever eaten...tastes like golden rod, apple blossoms and clover...smells like the lazy-sounding drone of busy bees... runs golden like humid summer mornings.

In the back of my mind, I've been wondering how to combine those flavors. In a fruit salad, perhaps?

This morning inspiration came from out of the blue, and I decided to make pancakes.

I mixed some self-rising flour, a big tablespoon full of cold leftover oatmeal from another breakfast, a bit of yellow cornmeal, some baking powder and salt, an egg and some milk. I chopped about half a ripe pear and stirred that in, then I coated a griddle with coconut oil.

I spooned the batter out to fry, then sprinkled chopped black walnuts on the pancakes before I flipped them.

I didn't measure the ingredients, but my "recipe" made about four small pancakes. When they were golden brown and done, I topped them with a pat of butter, then I drizzled some mountain honey over them and plowed through them with my fork.

Ummm, they were good.  And I didn't have to wonder anymore how the combination of pear, black walnut and honey would taste.

The flavors were sweetly earthy, grown from the same dirt I came from, and very satisfying.