Asian Pears

Asian pears: I am in love

I fell in love with Asian pears when I was in college. I may be dating myself, or maybe it was just the eating habits of my family growing up, but I never had an Asian pear before my early 20s. I don’t remember how I happened to eat that first one, but I discovered that I loved that sweet, juicy, crispness of the fruit.

I don’t know what this variety is, but I love the golden brown color

When Steven’s parents built this house and put in the garden, they planted two Asian pear trees. I don’t think I found out about the trees until we heard that his dad was composting the fruit because they were so productive and they couldn’t eat it all. I wasn’t even aware that Asian pears could be grown here, so I was ecstatic at the possibility of access to so much fruit. And not only that, but one of the trees, the most productive one, was a variety that I loved. I still don’t know what that variety is, but it is the best I have ever had.

There are a lot of pears on that tree!

This week, I started picking that favorite variety of Asian pears. I wasn’t really expecting them to be ready yet. I guess I was thinking this year would be like last year, when they were quite late. There are a couple ways I know they are ready: time of year, color, taste testing and they start to fall off the trees. This year, as they were falling, I thought they were falling because of pests, because the color still had some green to it. (I forgot that sometimes they don’t completely turn yellow before they are ready.) It is pretty interesting what some pests can do. For pests that pupate in the ground, they can get the fruit to fall before it would on its own, so they can get into the ground quickly and easily. So, many times when I pick fruit up off the ground, it is fruit that has (or had) pests in it. I got the message this week: there are a lot of fruit on the ground, I’d better do a taste test and start picking. I picked quite a bit on Wednesday and there are a lot more to go. The harvest looks good, but since I didn’t use any spray the last few years (not even organic sprays), there are more pests than in the past. I look them over very carefully before selling them, looking for any signs of pests. We keep those fruit for us. Still, I recommend cutting the fruit before  you eat it, just to be sure.

Ahh, Asian pears! I am still in love and ecstatic that I can grow this amazing fruit.