I think the reason we often get the "html attachment was scrubbed" message
may be due to using rich text formatting in Hotmail. So here is my message
in plain text, hopefully this won't be "scrubbed":
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 authors
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 years tasting at Filoli. The alternative is to
grow them yourself."
Kevin Bradley