North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark & Helen Angermayer" <hangermayer@isp.com>]

I bought some Bartletts from the grocer a couple weeks ago.  They were very large, maybe 3/4 pounders.  I had high hopes for these great looking pears.  I put them on the table to ripen.  This is my regular practice for any pears I buy or pick.  However these pears didn't soften like normal.  They stayed hard and not very sweet.  Eventually by the time they started to soften a little, the flavor was over-ripe and tasted as if they had started fermenting.  The kids wouldn't eat them.  I only ate them because I knew what I paid for them.  What was going on with these pears?  Were they picked too early?

 

Mark

KS