North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[alexis <alex@conev.org>]

RE: Wintersweet
Well, not sure how to describe crunchy. It has more texture than the 
soft pears. Generally similar to a Bosc. I have not tried canning them. 
My family has eaten them all so far, though I have some in storage now. 
I imagine they would can well, because of the firmness and the sweet/ 
tartness. But that is only speculation.
Alexis


On 10/26/2015 04:07 PM, nafex-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
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>     1. Re:  New Pear Variety for Self Sufficiency (Naomi Counides)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2015 13:35:52 -0600
> From: "Naomi Counides" <naomi@oznayim.us>
> To: "'mailing list at ibiblio - Northamerican Allied Fruit
>         Experimenters'"    <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: Re: [nafex] New Pear Variety for Self Sufficiency
> Message-ID: <005301d11025$885b1540$99113fc0$@oznayim.us>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="UTF-8"
>
> Do you mean crunchy like a bosc pear? Sounds very interesting. How does it 
> can?
> Naomi
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nafex [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of alexis
> Sent: Monday, October 26, 2015 10:05 AM
> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [nafex] New Pear Variety for Self Sufficiency
>
> WinterSweet Pear
> A Valuable New Crop for Food Self-Sufficiency
>
> PLEASE FORWARD
>
> Summary:
>
> The purpose of this document is to bring to the awareness of the reader a new 
> variety of pear tree that I believe will be useful for those seeking food 
> self-sufficiency, or simply a much better winter storage pear. See the end of 
> the document if you wish to acquire one or more trees.
>
> The name of this pear tree is WinterSweet. I have been growing this tree in 3 
> orchards in Central Virginia for 5 years. The attributes of this tree and its 
> fruit are as follows.
>
> Vigor -- This is the fastest growing pear tree of any I have ever planted, 
> often growing twice as fast as other pear trees, even in mediocre soil. In 
> August when other pear trees have yellowed and are readying for dormancy, 
> this tree is still dark green and growing.
>
> Flavor -- This is the strongest flavored pear I have ever eaten. In the early 
> ripening stage, it has a very strong tart-sweet flavor with bitter overtones. 
> As it ripens fully, the bitterness disappears and the tartness diminishes 
> somewhat. The ripening pattern could be comparable to (pear-flavored) Granny 
> Smith apples -- very tart in the early ripening stage to finish with an 
> excellent sweet-tart flavor as it ripens fully. This is a storage pear. The 
> flavor is MUCH better then other late storage pears like Kieffer or Burford.
>
> Sugars (Brix) -- A friend of mine has a brix tester (he's a vegetable 
> breeder). We tested a couple of Wintersweets. The highest brix was 15.7, with 
> an average at 15.0. That is higher than most other pears.
>
> Ripening Time -- Late, harvest season begins in early October in Central 
> Virginia, extending for at least several weeks.
>
> Size -- Medium, about the size of a Bartlett.
>
> Disease Resistance -- Some of our test orchards suffer extreme disease and 
> insect pressure. The fruit of this pear is little bothered by insects. The 
> tree has suffered no blight damage whatsoever after 5 years in an orchard 
> with extreme blight pressure where other  blight resistant  pears have been 
> killed or badly damaged. This does NOT constitute an conclusive blight 
> resistance test.
>
> Texture -- In the early ripening stage, the texture is poor, fibrous, 
> sawdusty. As the fruit ripens fully, the texture improves substantially to 
> become a crunchy, sweet, dense pear. At full ripe, it is still the densest 
> pear I have ever eaten. The texture of this pear probably means it has little 
> value on the grocery store shelf (where people are used to delicate  desert  
> pears imported from afar).
>
> Storage Value -- Limited experimentation leads us to believe that this pear 
> is an excellent storage pear. It is a very dense pear, which appears to help 
> it store a long time without refrigeration. We have not done enough storage 
> with our various varieties to make a conclusive comparison yet.
>
> Pollination -- All of our Wintersweets are in orchards with numerous other 
> pear trees. I have no means by which to assess if WinterSweet is self-fertile 
> to any degree.
>
> Further Commentary
>
> The mother of this tree was growing on a farm that belongs to a friend of 
> mine in Central VA. The mother of the WinterSweet Pear tree was a massive 
> tree, probably 16 inches or more in diameter, perhaps 50 feet tall. It was in 
> a cow pasture, and produced a prodigious quantity of pears that we made into 
> the most amazing cider I have ever tasted. I was impressed by this late, 
> dense, sweet fruit, and started grafting it. I prize late fruit highly. I 
> love my Seckle Pear, but in August, life is just too full of good things for 
> the self-sufficient farmer. The mother of WinterSweet blew over in a storm a 
> few years ago.
>
> I have planted WinterSweets in 3 orchards in Central Virginia. Orchard number 
> 1 is in Charlottesville VA and suffers from extreme fireblight pressure. If 
> you are familiar with fireblight, you know that is a /very/fickle disease 
> that responds with extreme variability to environmental triggers (moisture 
> and temperature, I think). A tree that shows no signs of blight for years may 
> be devastated by the disease when circumstances change. The performance of 
> other pear trees in regards to fireblight in orchard number 1 are as follows:
>
> Magness -- killed to the ground.
>
> Harvest Queen -- A Bartlett derivative that is supposed to be  much more 
> disease resistant  than Bartlett (quoting Cummins Nursery). My Harvest Queen 
> has produced some really delightful fruit, but it has been hammered by 
> fireblight and appears to be in terminal decline.
>
> Kieffer -- Badly damaged by blight. (I cut it down after a few productive 
> years because the fruit consistently tasted like damp styrofoam).
>
> Seckle -- Minor damage each year.
>
> Ayers -- I have only had this tree a few years and have seen no damage yet.
>
> Our number 2 and 3 test orchards have dozens of varieties of pears in them. 
> The blight pressure is less extreme than the number 1 orchard (much better 
> air movement). Some of our  blight resistant  trees have suffered at least 
> minor damage in these orchards as well. To date Wintersweet has experienced 
> no blight damage in our number 2 or number 3 orchards.
>
> The reason I believe this tree is valuable from a food self-sufficiency 
> standpoint is that the tree is so incredibly vigorous, shows no signs of 
> disease problems, produces a prodigious quantity of very sweet fruit, 
> produces its fruit in the fall after the peak of the annuals harvest has 
> passed, and probably will store for a long time in a root cellar or other 
> appropriate environment. *Winter fruit without canning is highly valuable 
> from a food self-sufficiency standpoint. *
>
> WinterSweet appears to be a European/ Asian cross. It has a an Asian growth 
> pattern, with branches close together in a vertical orientation.
> It does not spread naturally. It has thick stems and gives the appearance of 
> an Asian pear. The flavor however is radically different than Asian pears. I 
> have never tasted a pear with such tartness.
>
> I believe it would be helpful for the local food movement if this pear tree 
> were widely disseminated, particularly for people aspiring to food 
> self-sufficiency. WinterSweet is a dramatically better pear than other winter 
> keepers like Burford or Keiffer, much sweeter and more flavorful.
> Wintersweet has a later ripening time than any of the other  desert  pears, 
> later than any pear with which I am familiar. Given its density and late 
> ripening, it may store later into the winter than any of the other storage 
> pears, though I cannot make that claim based on systematic comparisons with 
> other pears.
>
> Plan to Disseminate
>
> We have a limited quantity of fruit at this time. We also have an excellent 
> solar food drying system. I am part of an organization called Living Energy 
> Farm that is building a farm and a community that will run without fossil 
> fuel (see livingenergyfarm.org). I would like to propagate this tree and let 
> the proceeds support Living Energy Farm. In the winter of 2015-2016, I will 
> order roostock. (I teach propagation classes and get the rootstock for those 
> classes.) I use OHxF pear rootstock. WinterSweet is the fastest growing pear 
> of any we have planted on OHxF rootstock, which is a modern, blight-resistant 
> rootstock. We use OHxF 333, a semi-dwarf rootstock, and OHxF 97, which 
> produces a near full-sized tree. Our earliest WinterSweets are on 333 
> rootstock, and have a vertical orientation topping off at about 15 feet.
> I don't think they are going to get any taller. So far our WinterSweets on 
> OHxF 97 are wider, and perhaps 20 feet tall. I don't know what the final 
> height of a WinterSweet on OHxF 97 might be.
>
> This winter, we are going to try to send dried samples of WinterSweet to as 
> many people as we can (at no charge). We are going to propagate trees based 
> on the number of people who say they are interested in purchasing trees 
> shipped to them in winter 2016-2017 (about a year from now). If you want a 
> tree, let us know now. Asking for a tree now will NOT commit you to buying 
> one a year from now. We will ask for payment then, and you can decline at 
> that time if you choose. But I don't want to propagate a lot of trees unless 
> there is sufficient interest. Final cost will depend on what we can figure 
> our for shipping. I would estimate something in the range of $30 - $40 for 
> one tree, and an additional $25 for each additional tree.
>
> I will probably not disseminate scion wood this year as supply is limited. 
> Please let me know if you would like to make buy a WinterSweet next winter. 
> Please let me know if you want a free sample (small) of the dried fruit. We 
> will be sending these samples to a LIMITED number of people. Please send an 
> email with WinterSweet in the subject line to tradelocally (that email 
> symbol) yahoo.com to indicate your interests.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Alexis Zeigler
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