To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] skin thickness in pears
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 09:27:15 -0500
Oh, a post I missed on a favorite subject.
Lisa,
I too note the difference in skin thickness in pears and consider it a very
important quality. The oriental pears all seem to have thick skin and are
best peeled. That quality seems to have gone into a lot of the hybrids, in
fact I'd say you have to get down to the 1/4 oriental hybrids to get rid of
it. In this area, the thin skinned pears I have met that are doing well
here are Beierschmidt, a Bartlett seedling that is really nice, Ayers, which
is incredible, and Pineapple, which is hard to place. Pineapple is round
like an oriental, thin skinned and tart, with very little pear flavor. I
have met what I think is Turnbull with slightly tougher skin, and my first
crop of Warrens had thickish skin but not grainy, with delectable flavor
underneath. Orient, by extreme contrast, has very tough rough skin, but
when picked green and ripened, is melting and a bit gritty. Lucky would
hate it, despite the grit. Donna
Re: [NAFEX] skin thickness in pears,
Kieran &/or Donna, 10/05/2009