Pears

Well given that it is almost Christmas and many of you will be singing about pears (or at least pear trees), it is a good time to look at pears.

While I had a pear the other day that was just about perfect, Ido not think most people have the same experience. Pears are VASTLY under appreciated by most in today's society. Why? people do not know how to eat pears. Or maybe a better way to say it is that they do not know WHEN to eat pears!

Let me quote Barry Ballister's Fruit and Vegetable Stand Book.
Page 342

Pears are elegantly seductive. They are sweet, juicy, wonderfully textured, and highly nutritious. They have the most subtle taste of all orchard fruit and will leave your palate delightfully fresh and clean.

Continuing Ballister writes:

All pears must be picked unripe. If pears are allowed to ripen on the tree, they develop little grit cell, or stones in the flesh.

I think that much of the reason is that pears are underappreciated stems from the fact that 99% of all pears are sold unripe. Thus when a person buys a pear and tries it, the pear is still hard and almost tasteless. (try the same with a banana--take home a green banana and eat it. I bet you won't like that either. The difference is that judging pears' ripeness is more difficult than that of bananas.)

So, how do you tell if a pear is ripe?

Softness is the best measure, but we really do not want you squeezing the fruit! California pears has a great tool to show you by color when their Barlett pears are ready. Try it out!

For pears that do not change color, USA Pears has a useful page that also gives tips on ripening (place in paper bag etc).

(Jimmy's note: this last link was added after the original post.)

A warning
Ripe pears, while delicious, bruise VERY easily and often look bad. For that reason we generally do not leave them on the shelf. But for the record, these are the ones I buy! They are ready to eat immediately.)

Varieties

There are many varieties of pears. The most common that we sell are the Anjou pear (greenish), the Bartlett Pear (Yellow usually), and Bosc pear (darker, often almost brown). USApears.com has a series of pictures that will help you distinguish one from another.

I was surprised at how nutritious pears can be. I generally considered them more of a dessert treat that anything else, but they are surprisingly high in nutrition.

My biggest recommendation for you if you are buying pears is to plan ahead. Even if the pears are left out of refrigeration, they will take several days to ripen. Remember a ripe pear is just a tad soft.

If you really want a treat, try sliced pears sprinkled with brown sugar and then warmed slightly. Or really treat yourself and serve with vanilla ice cream on top.

Useful pear sites
http://www.truestarhealth.com/Notes/1869002.html
http://www.usapears.com/
http://www.calpear.com/