arvesting pears is a great summer tradition at my house. We don't pick them, like civilized people. The kids and I don old World War II-vintage steel helmets, and shake the trees for all they're worth. The pears come down like a dump-truck load of rocks. Anyone standing under them without protective gear would be sorry.
I planted a Bartlett pear when I first moved here, and waited. And waited. Twelve years after planting it, someone told me Bartletts were "not recommended" for this area, though all the big nurseries stocked them. Former Harris County horticulture agent Bill Adams once had a call-in on his radio show who insisted there must be something he could do to make his Bartlett produce pears. Adams responded : "Well, you could dig it up and plant it in Washington State."
I finally went to Mr. Hester, a wonderful old character who ran a mom-and-pop nursery in Seabrook for decades, now the site of a great city park. He got me an Orient pear and a Pineapple pear -- two varieties that did extremely well for me. Now there are dozens of varieties we can choose from. At a recent pear tasting put on by Galveston County Master Gardeners, it was hard to choose which variety tasted best. My husband kept pulling me over to the Tennessee pear, a delicious variety created by a Tennessee breeding program but which wasn't "pretty" enough for commercialization. Master Gardener Sam Powers raises a dozen varieties of pears but prefers the Spalding, the Pineapple, and an Asian pear called Ya Li. My friend Clyde loves his Garber pear. I adored the flavors of the Shinseiki and the Warren.
Many of these varieties are hard to find at local nurseries, but the best ones usually show up at the spring Master Gardener sale the first Saturday of every February. I got up early and grabbed a Shinseiki at the last sale, as if it were a hunk of gold. I grafted a couple branches of the Tennessee pear onto my Pineapple pear, after a grafting demonstration and graft wood sale offered by the Galveston County Extension Office. The Warren requires 800 chill hours (when the temperatures are between 46 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit), too many for our area, which only gets about 200-300 chill hours in an average winter. Always check the chill hour requirements for all fruit trees, especially apples and pears. It's the difference between a tree that buries you in fruit and one that never produces anything.
Pears have a peculiar story. According to Janet Hazen in her wonderful book Pears : A Country Garden Cookbook, there are four species of wild pears, two of which originated in the Caucasus region of Russia and eastern Turkey and led to the "European" varieties, and two of which came from China and became the Asian "pear-apples". The remnants of European pears have been found in 10,000 year old archeological digs. The Sumerians mention their use as a poultice for wounds in 2700 B.C. -- ground up and mixed with figs, thyme, oil and ale. The ancient Greeks and Romans traditionally ate pears fresh as dessert. In the meantime, the Chinese were developing the Asian pear-apples (a softer, rounder, milder-flavored species of pear) as far back as 1000 B.C. There were no pears in North America until the Europeans brought them in 1630. Now there are thousands of varieties, here and abroad.
Pears are great trees for the horticulturally-challenged. They tolerate many different soil conditions, don't require much care or fertilizing once established, rarely need pruning, and can produce bumper crops of fruit for decades, with little care. They can get a bacterial disease called "fire blight" in our area, where the tips of the branches whither and turn black. One can plant a fire-blight resistant variety, like my Orient. Alas, my Pineapple pear wasn't resistant and got fire blight a few years ago. I merely pruned off the diseased branches (dipping the shears in alcohol with each cut so I didn't spread the bacteria) until I was eight inches back into the healthy wood. Then I thoroughly sprayed the tree with a fire blight concoction that had streptomycin sulfate in it. I sprayed the tree once one year, and again the following one when a little lingering blight reappeared, cutting out the diseased branches again. I later learned that commercial products called Bordeaux mix or Kocide 101, sprayed every 5-7 days during the bloom, would work too. One must read the label directions carefully, and follow the directions exactly on these and all chemical products.
The pear's success also has a lot to do with its easy picking and easy storage. "Because pears are one of the few fruits that actually ripen more successfully off the tree," says Hazen, "they are picked when green and hard." It's true. Last year, I was almost buried by my pears, and had to keep them in bushels in my house until my friends came back from vacation. A week or so in my kitchen made the pears wonderful eating. The old-timers in Galveston County often pick the pears when they're "softball" hard, wrap each pear in newspaper, put them in a box, and store them in a cool dark place. Some varieties can keep for several months this way, but some can't. I found those left on the tree to ripen just became rotten.
I had so many pears last year, I got creative canning them. Along with the traditional proportion of sugar, I substituted some flavored liqueur instead of water when stewing the pears prior to canning : butterscotch liqueur, spiced rum, amaretto, port wine, caramel-vanilla liqueur, or a touch of creme de menthe. The pears got infused with the flavor of the liqueur, but at the same time kept their own special flavor. I served them as a sidedish to poultry or pork during the holidays, stuck them in a salad of mixed greens and blue cheese in the winter, used them in an upside down cake in the spring. The bushels I gave away to my friends became sweet relish, chow-chow, pear butter, pear compote, pear chutney, pear nut bread, pear liqueur, pear vinegar, and a splendid variety of tortes, pies, cakes and desserts.
My most intriguing discovery was Pear Pickles. Hard to believe, pears make stupendous pickles, especially our firm southern pears. They are not as sour as a cucumber pickle, because they keep their own distinctive mellow pear flavor while developing that perfect sweet/sour pickle balance. I came up with this really addictive pickle, after scouring my cookbooks, getting ideas for the right spice blends here and there.
- EXOTIC PEAR PICKLES
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3 lbs. firm pears
- 2 small/medium cinnamon sticks (about 2" long)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon whole cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground mace
- 1/2 teaspoon ground galangal (Thai ginger -- can be found at Asian stores or at Penzey's Spices at their store on 19th Street in the Houston Heights, or mail order)
- a few pieces crystallized ginger
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups water
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1. Peel, core, and cut pears into sixths or quarters (quarters for smaller ones, sixths for larger ones).
- 2. Put in large pot and add all other ingredients. Simmer, mostly covered, 30 minutes.
- 3. Place pears into hot sterilized canning jars, dividing spices evenly. Fill jars with liquid to 1/2 inch of top.
- 4. Seal tightly with sterilized new lids. Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes.
- 5. Store about a month in a dark place for the flavors to develop.
- 6. Chill before serving.
