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  • From: "Ed Forest" <edforest55@hotmail.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] White Doyenne
  • Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 12:40:46 +0000

In answer to the request for info on a list of pears, I have the following description of White Doyenne. Curiously I had been getting many requests for this pear in the last few years and now I know why, (I have not tasted it yet myself) a recent book came out which described it in greater than life terms (see excerpt following)
White Doyenne:  This ancient and world-renowned pear, its fruits the most delectable of any that come from a pear orchard, is now rarely planted in America. In the middle of the last century, (when owning the best pear varieties was the "in" thing), White Doyenne was one of the most commonly planted.
This pear is  one of the oldest of all varieties. It is said to have originated with the Romans and called by the name "Sementinum".
From the following website a book review:
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/bkrev/GreatBookOfPears.html
The Great Book of Pears
       by Barbara Jeanne Flores
". . . There I obtained scionwood for White Doyenné, my favorite in recent years at the Filoli Fall Festival. This pear is also one of the author’s favorites. She introduces her book with "In Search of the White Doyenné."
Here is her description of it: "I picked up a small yellow pear shaped like a little turban that yielded slightly to my touch. The bag  read White Doyenné. I bit into it. It melted in my mouth. The taste was more like a fine, rich buttery chardonnay than any pear I had tasted. Like wine, it was sweet yet tart, with musky undertones and a strong perfume. Never in my life had I tasted fruit like that! I had eaten good juicy peaches from a Georgia fruit stand and wonderful mangos on a stick in Mexico, but nothing like this."
That was the good news. The bad news was that to taste these pears again, one must wait until next year’s tasting at Filoli. The alternative is to grow them yourself."
Kevin Bradley


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  • [NAFEX] White Doyenne, Ed Forest, 04/15/2004

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