Prep time: 20 min

Cook time: About 1 hour and 15 min

Total time: About 1 hour and 35 min

Yield: Serves 6

This blue ribbon recipe comes from 82 year-old Jean Podell who won Moraga, California's pear recipe contest. The town, which was built in the last hundred years on Bartlett orchards, still has many producing trees along its bike trail and open spaces. In 1999, Moraga organized a community harvest and its first annual Moraga Pear Festival to celebrate its history.

• 1 unbaked prepared pie shell for open-face pie, or use 2 shells for a two-crust pie
• 5 to 6 large Bartlett pears to fill pie shell, peeled, cored, and sliced
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla