Poire Prisonnière

In the process of gearing up for the big Thanksgiving cooking frenzy, I was busy taking inventory of my pantry and liquor supplies this morning.  Whilst poking around the myriad dusty offerings in the booze cupboard, I came across this fascinating bottle of pear brandy. 

It's called "Poire Prisonnière" ("Imprisoned Pear"), and that's exactly what it is.  How on earth did they get that plump piece of fruit into the bottle?  Curious, I consulted good old Google, and this is what I found out:

"How do they get the pear in the bottle? Simple, the bottle is attached to the branch of a budding pear tree and the fruit grows inside it. Air is periodically pumped into the bottle so the fruit doesn’t rot and some even cut the other pears off the branch so the one pear gets as much nutrition as possible. Then, before the bottle is filled with the liqueur, the pear is pricked slightly to let the juice out."

Should make for an interesting conversational tidbit around the Thanksgiving dinner table next Thursday!