Storing winter pears

[perkin]

I have recently had my main pear tree identified as a Winter Nellis. The advice was to harvest the fruit in late Oct, and then store them to get ripe fruit in Dec/Jan. I can't seem to find any definitive advice on how to store the pears - wrap/don't wrap, stack/don't stack, cool conditions/slightly warm room, cellar/attic, etc. There's around 200 pears on the tree right now so I'm hoping the advice isn't to store them in a single layer otherwise I might have to buy a new house...

[FB.]

I store my winter fruit in the most basic of conditions - many of the old varieties (Winter Nelis, from over 150 years ago pre-dates commercial storage). Many old varieties keep very well in simple conditions, whereas modern varieties are bred for storage in "controlled atmosphere".

I store my fruits in my garage/workshop. It is tiled, brick, and unheated. Certain old, long-keeping varieties used to be chucked into sacks like spuds and the sacks were often just tied to the tree and left hanging on the tree all winter - fruit being used as needed after the new year and sometimes tasting better after a frost!

The usual recommendation is a cool, dark, frost-free location.
Personally, not being a grower of Winter Nelis, I would try a handful of approaches, but only store fruit which is in perfect condition because "one bad apple <or pear> will spoil the barrel".

After sorting out any which are damaged (and earmarking them for being used first or discarded):

1. Store some in carrier bags, in batches of about ten per bag. Store in your shed/garage.
Inspect bags about once per week, removing any rotten pears as soon as seen and using (or discarding) the remainder in the bag as soon as possible before the spores from the rot on the first pear germinate on the remainder in the same bag.

2. Wrap some in paper/newspaper and store in a carrier bag as above.

3. Store some in single-layer trays in the shed, some wrapped in paper and some not.


.

After a few weeks of storage (storing often is required to develop full flavour) bring out a pear from storage every couple of days, allowing it a couple of days to ripen in your fruit bowl. I often ripen a few fruits on my garden benches for a few days; the cool air and autumn sun are by far the best way to properly ripen the late-keeping fruit as needed for early consumption (rather than try to ripen them in a window or fruit bowl). The problem is pest damage if you're not careful.