However, it's also pretty useless. Just before the fruit is ripe, it's grainy and as hard as a rock. And the moment it ripens, it falls and turns to mush. I've known this tree for 40 years, and in all that time I've only managed to eat a handful of pears that were caught 'just right'.
Every year it's the same. We admire the blossom in spring, and make definite plans to do something with its certain bounteous crop. And every year we fail.
However not all Pear Trees are thus. On the day that my grandson Finn was born, I planted him a 'Doyenne du Comice'; probably the world's best pear. We've already eaten its fruit, and it's wonderful; I recommend the variety to anyone wishing to plant a Pear Tree. One picks the fruit in October, and leaves it until November before eating. Yum.
Yum indeed! Oh for fruit trees in the garden - brings back memories of childhood. Crab apple and pear trees, then there was gooseberry and blackberry bushes, rhubarb and all the seasonal fruit and veg that dad so tenderly tended!
ReplyDeleteI have a strawberry growing between the slabs that make the patio. Seed dropped by our feathered friends years ago - just big enough to complete the cycle as it is food for the birds only.
Anna :o]
Gracious Cro...for 40 years Mother Nature has been signaling you, just when the time in right (ripe?) to host a local "Pear-Raining Harvest Party" at your house, and you haven't picked up on it!
ReplyDeleteMethinks you might be the useless one!
You made me think of the apple orchard on the farm. Wonderful old varieties of apples that you never see in the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there must be a correct time to harvest those pears Cro....maybe some of the older villagers could give you some pointers.
Maybe I could interest my village in establishing a giant annual Pear-Fight (something similar to the Italians and their tomatoes). It'd be good to use them for something 'creative'.
ReplyDeleteMy great-grandfather had a wonderful old pear tree in his back yard. I remember him lifting me up to chose a pear. Nothing tasted so heavenly.
ReplyDeleteWillow. It must have been a 'Doyenne du Comice'.
ReplyDeleteIt's beautiful. Nothing like a fresh pear off the tree. But I know what you mean about the ripening being off, because the apple trees in my backyard do the same thing. They finally ripen, only to have a few rotten spots from bugs and birds.
ReplyDeleteThe blossom is gorgeous all the same!
ReplyDelete