North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Rodney Eveland" <reveland@collinscom.net>]

Here is a post from a Nafexer I came across while looking for pears
other than URE. Golden Spice is also mentioned.

http://saximontana.lakeheadu.ca/hyatt/PearsforColdClimates.htm

Part of the problem with pears is that they seem to like to be
blooming earlier than apples and you can usually predict that there
will be another hard frost after pears bloom in the North. Therefore
one either needs some kind of frost protection or a way to delay
bloom, and pollinate them with a q-tip or whatever, although once in a
while you will get a crop and  Ures that fall on the ground seem to be
dead ripe and lucious in my experience. Other than that if one hasn't
lots of patience or a lot of property to play with I'd stick with
apples. Anyhow the article is "good reading material" with references
to Nafex articles. Typically if you are looking for cold hardy fruit
look in Alberta and Saskatchewan as the folks who live there don't
have a lot of choice. They have to have either cold hardy plants or
extraordinary methods of winter protection. Because of their climate
they don't need pest hardy plants however as not many pests enjoy
their Winters.