Grow Your Own Magazine

I have inherited some pear trees. One of them fruits well but the pears never seem to ripen even after storage. I have no what vareity they are. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could do with them apart from add them to my ever increasing compost heaps (4 to date)

Hello Roitelet, sorry to disappointent you but no pear expert here. My father in law had a pear tree in his garden. It was a wild pear and maybe that is what you have. The blossom was magnificent and pears by the ton, BUT, totally inedible even after cooking. Great for the birds though. All it was possible to do with that tree was enjoy the glory of it. I suspect you have to enjoy the glory of your tree - or make way for something else.

Thanks Alice
hese are not wild pears as they were planted against the house as they do in Normandy. Even if I can never do anything with the pears I will keep them as they are traditional and I do enjoy them.

Hello Roitelet, do keep us posted on how your gardening goes in Normandy. I think L J put a section under weather for members on the European continent. I spent March, April and May in Brittany last year - now there's a climate to garden in. The spring weather was fabulous, but, overall, the west of Scotland is the place for me. But really intreresting to see what difference geographical location and local practises make.

Hi roitelet, maybe you could try poaching them in some of the plentiful wine you must have in your region?

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

Delia's Christmas book has a recipe for pickled pears that I make with fairly hard pears so it might work with unripe ones. If you're interested I'll hunt it out for you.

Yes please blackkitty,
A recipe would be good. I am fed up with having to consign then to the compost

Hi Roitelet, there's a nice recipe for poached pears on the BBC food website (see link below) it should work with hard or under-ripe pears if you just simmer them a bit longer at the beginning until they are soft.
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/pearspoachedinrosema_8633.shtml

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

Thanks SueA

Interesing website. I'm a bit new to this internet thingy, especially in French! I will leave the pears for a bit longer and look forward to experimenting with some of the recipies in the cold wet days of winter.

Here we go, Delia Smith's Spiced Pickled Pears
1kg (2lb) pears (she says the smallest hardest ones you can find)
350g (12oz) light brown sugar
375ml (10 fl oz) white wine vinegar
275ml (10fl oz) cider vinegar
7.5cm (3 inch) piece cinnamon stick broken into three pieces
1/2 lemon cut into thin slices
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
1 level teaspoon juniper berries
1 level dessertspoon mixed pepper berries

Place everything accept the pears in a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil. While this is happening, peel the pears. (she leaves them whole but I often cut them in halves or even quarters as I find they fit in the jars better) place in cold water as you peel them. When all the sugar has dissolved in the vinegar, drain the pears and place in the saucepan, simmer gently for about 20 minutes or until the feel tender when tested witha skewer and look slightly transperant. Transfer the pears and lemon slices to sterilized jars using a slotted spooon. Boil the syrup furiously untill it is reduced and syrupy (about 25 minutes) - I always find this takes longer than I think it will. Pour the syrup over the pears and add the spices to the jar as well. Keep for 1 month before using.
Delia says they keep for 6 months, I've kept them for a lot longer and they've just got better.
I've also made this using red wine vinegar instead of white and have left out the juniper berries to no great detriment.

Thanks blackkitty. Have tried this today and it was incredibly easy. Looks pretty good too. Had to vary the vinegar as i didn't have cider vinegar wo will let you know if it works.

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

I'm going to have a go at that to, sounds like ideal christmas pressies!!

Are these then served as a dessert? I thought so, apart from the vinegar bit, which made me wonder whether it was a cold meat accompaniment, or similar.

our pears are just the same, two verieties, masses of fruit, never fully ripen. we make very nice perry out of them.

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Yo an' Bob
Walk lightly on the earth
take only what you need
give all you can
and your produce will be bountifull

yoanbob, any hints on how to make perry.

We are trying cider for the first time and are a bit unsure how it will turn out . Did you add yeast or hope the naturally present stuff would be sufficient? If you did add yeast what variety did you add?

Also we have been washing and removing bugs, bad and mouldy bit etc so it's a pretty slow process - are we bing over sensitive? Will a bit of added protein and some earwig poo really change the final taste?

Any help would be appreciated .

Not sure about making perry. We too have a Perry pear. The pears are not only hard, but even cooked they have little flavour. Another problem we have is that the tree is 60 feet plus high and the pears are just a little out of reach. By the time they drop they are not a lot of use and boy do the wasps love them. Mind, so do the butterflies.
As for cider apples, in the 'good old day' all they did was to wash the fruit. crush it and squeeze it. The resulting juice was allowed to forment with natural yeasts. I would imagine that they got cider vinegar as often as they got anything else.
Not sure if it would work and it would be a lot of work, but you could put the pears through a 'juicer' and add a general purpose wine yeast to the juice.