Pear Place Card Holders

Choose ripe, but not overripe, pears so their skins are just soft enough for the pods to be pushed through. You can, if you prefer, omit the twigs and rest small cards with handwritten menus in between the pods at the top of each pear.

Much food produce is now heavily packaged, which is costly and usually unnecessary. Try to buy your pears loose, and choose a simply packaged bag of cardamom pods to avoid any wasteful plastic packaging.

Materials Needed:

• 1 ripe pear
• a quantity of green cardamom pods
• 1 twig with two stems forming a “V” shape at one end
• recycled paper

Step 1

Select a pear and press the pointed end of a cardamom pod gently into the flesh. Press more pods in as closely to each other as possible.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - A Greener Christmas © 2008 Dorling Kindersley Limited

Step 2

Continue to gently press the pods into the pear flesh until the skin is covered completely in pods.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - A Greener Christmas © 2008 Dorling Kindersley Limited

Step 3

Once covered, the pear should be able to stand upright unaided. Leave a small gap in the top of the pear and insert the twig.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - A Greener Christmas © 2008 Dorling Kindersley Limited