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nafex - Re: [nafex] "Wild" Pear - Ripening and Recipes?

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  • From: <dwoodard@becon.org>
  • To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] "Wild" Pear - Ripening and Recipes?
  • Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2012 03:06:49 -0500

Pete, European pears may differ in their behaviour.

The classic ripening technique for European fresh eating pears is: 50 to 70 degrees F. (cooler is usually though not always better) in a closed container. Sometimes a preliminary period of cold storage is best (said to be 2 months for Anjou). My experience is that ripening Ontario grown Anjous taken from cold storage in January produces an absolutely delicious fruit. Note that some European pears apparently need months of root cellar type storage ("common storage") to ripen. In the old days apparently winter pears such as Josephine de Malines and Winter Nelis were kept in common storage and would ripen well into winter.

European cooking pears (e.g. Catillac) are said to require cooking for 2 hours even after months of storage. Reputedly they are easy to store in good condition. I have no personal experience with them.

I don't know anything about Oriental pears and hybrids, except that I have been told that well grown Kieffers respond well to a few weeks common storage, and limited personal experience suggests that it is so.

I suggest that if possible you try different treatments on several different batches.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


On Sat, 17 Nov 2012 15:08:15 -0500, Peter Chrisbacher <pxbacher@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello All -

Last weekend I stumbled across what appears to me to be a very large old
wild pear tree here in Wilmington DE. The tree still has lots of pears
hanging on its branches, as well as loads of fruit still in good shape (and
rock hard) on the ground around it.

Assuming this is actually a "wild" tree, these pears are quite large - the
one I'm looking at now is just slightly smaller than a bartlett. Nearby the
tree is an overgrown apple tree that appears quite a bit younger than the
pear tree.

I am quite sure I can collect at least two and probably more 5-gallon pails
of fruit from around this tree. This being the case, I have a few
questions for the group:

1) Any thoughts on whether this is a seedling pear or may actually be a
cultivar? I see no indication of grafting on the tree.
2) If possibly not a seedling, how might I go about typing it?
3) These pears are rock hard, despite storing 5 in a paper bag at room temp
for the past week. They're juicy enough, but are tart and mildly tannic.
Do I have any hope of ripening them, or would I be better off processing
them in some way?
4) What might be the best way(s) to try ripening and/or processing some of
these? I'm willing to experiment by trying different things this year
thinking ahead to next year's harvest

Here's a pic of one of the pears:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SrbRngldHoADQFNNTHTVrtMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Thanks!

Pete Chrisbacher
Zone 6b/7a Southeast PA





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