Alder Burns wrote:Many people find that pears from backyard trees are disappointing compared to commercial fruit. In large part this is due to harvest timing and aftercare. Ideally most pears should be picked when still somewhat hard....the key is to look along the small stem of the fruit itself and there will be a swollen spot right where the stem will break. When this is swollen and the pear will snap off cleanly at that point when gently lifted, the fruit is good to harvest. This may be a month or more before they turn color and start to drop on their own. After picking, refrigerate them for a while...at least a couple of weeks. Many varieties can keep in cold storage for months at this stage. To ripen them up, pull some out and let sit at room temperature for a few days and they will soften up nicely. Many old trees that produce "sandy" or "gritty" pears that are basically useless off the tree will ripen up smooth and creamy given this treatment!
Bryant RedHawk wrote:We grow Bartlett, Asian apple and Bosc pears. We can most of them but we also eat some fresh.
We can store fresh picked in the "cold" root cellar for around two to three months. (we have two root cellars, one gets colder than it should and that's were we store apples and pears, separated and each with its own vent pipe).
Stacy Witscher wrote:I concur on asian pears, they are delicious. They are very crisp, I would say even crisper than apples. But given that a lot of their appeal is that crisp texture, they are best for fresh eating, not preserving, although I have found a pickled asian pear recipe that I want to try.
Chris Holcombe wrote:I planted Korean giant, chojuro and seuri. I tasted hosui at the home orchard society this fall and that’s another really good asian pear. Same complex sweet crisp butterscotch flavor. My daughter had a meltdown over not being able to eat the rest haha. They’re that good! My trees are going into their 3rd season so they’re young still. I got 2 small chojuros this past fall and they were quite good. I have high hopes the others are just as good. I might graft a hosui just for the heck of it onto my bartlett tree.
Kim Goodwin wrote:I second Seckel. They are exquisite, like juicy little honey balls.
Asian pears, we grew two varieties, they are also delicious. Though most people only try them fresh, they are actually quite good dried in slices like apples, or in pear sauce (skin on works if you have a powerful blender).
If you can find a true winter pear - that's a pear that has to be harvested in late fall before a major freeze, then kept and ripened indoors for several weeks - these can be fantastic, some akin to a seckel, some to a really delicious comice or bartlett. When you harvest a winter pear, it will be rock hard and inedible, yet the size of the fruit will be fully developed. They can be huge types bigger than a large apple, or tiny pears like a Secklel, russet or clear skin. They are quite unique.
Most of the winter pears I've had were in my parent's orchard, where they have two seed-grown trees, likely offspring from the bartlett orchard that still partially stands. These winter pears would stretch our pear season into late Dec/early Jan. Delectable.
Crt Jakhel wrote:This past season our Shinko's crop was decimated by hail and I haven't even noticed that some fruits have made it through. When I finally noticed and picked them they were glorious, the best so far in these 10 years. (On second thought this could also mean that I should thin them myself regularly.)
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