Thursday 18 April 2013

Gone Pear-shaped.




I've spoken before about this tree.

It's one of the biggest Pear trees in the area, and produces vast amounts of Pears. The only problem is that whilst still on the tree, they're hard and inedible, and as soon as they drop, they turn to mush.


So what can one do? Well, last year I bought a small fruit press, and if my theory is correct they should be perfect for making the most wonderful juice. I might even try to make some Perry.

I'll let you know. But for the moment, just look at all those flowers; each one a potential Pear.


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14 comments:

  1. that's a fine looking press as well! are you able to pick any of the hard ones and ripen them on your windowsill? Of course, you'd need an awfully tall ladder to reach most of them.

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    1. It's a weird tree. The pears don't seem to ripen like other pears; they just rot.

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  2. A magnificent tree - maybe you should prune it down to a more reasonable level - less pears but larger. I have never had any success with pears they usually drop off as soon as they form.

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    1. I've just planted two more. Doyenne de Comice, and Conference. Both wonderful fruiting trees; but it'll be a while.

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  3. I love pear trees and that one is spectacular! We have one in France that is very puny looking indeed. However, every year it produces a few absolutely delicious, juicy and succulent pears -- I've no idea why or how!

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    1. Monty is quite a big dog, and he looks tiny by the side of the tree. It really is huge.

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  4. I had an avocado tree like that. Pick them off the tree and they were hard, let them drop and they were rotten inside. It was Marcia who told me that her mother used to pick the Avocados and place them in a box with a banana inside (not touching the Avos) and in a couple of days they would be ripe but not rotten. When I visited the Fyffes Banana processing plant in Belize (thirty years ago) I was shown how they dip the bananas to arrest the ripening process and then at their destination, I was told, they would be exposed to ethylene gas which started the ripening process again. It did put me off bananas for a while so I like my MIL's natural method of ripening without rotting.

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    1. There was a huge Fyffes ripening shed on the outskirts of the village were I was born (Lingfield Sy). The village greengrocer used to exhibit the huge spiders that were found in amongst the bananas. I'm now wondering if the pear tree was specially grown for making Eau-de-Vie. Being already soft, they would be ideal for pressing.

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    2. HaHa, the spiders! My Father, ever the joker he was, convinced me as a boy that Tarantulas laid their eggs in bananas so one always had to be careful when peeling them.

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  5. I have the same problem with my apple trees, especially last year during the drought. I made a few pies, but many of them ended up rotting in the grass. NIce idea with the press. Thrifty!

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  6. We pick our pears green and hard, then ripen them on a table in the garage.

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  7. hooray....invite us all for the perry please!...why do pears do that when I turn my back??

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  8. The pear blossom looks fantastic. looking forward to seeing all your bottles of perry.

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  9. That tree looks magnificent. Apples give off ethylene, too, so if you haven't a banana handy, perhaps placing an apple amongst the hard pears would do the trick?

    Or just press for Perry.

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