Pictures of some European pears for you

Stopped at Cornell Orchard Store today. They have several E pears on sale. I did not take pictures of Bosc or Bartlett, the common varieties.
Here are the pic of other varieties.


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None of the orchards I’ve been to down here around Philly have pears. I find this strange as they seem to be one of the easier fruits to grow.

Harrow Sweet looks much more yellow than I expected.

@growjimgrow Weaver’s orchard in Morgantown has a good variety of pears. It’s a bit of a ride but kids love looking at the farms along the way.

Thanks, I’ve never been there. Seems like they have a good variety.

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Thanks Mamuang!

Pears have leaped into the front as my favorite fruit. I know you grow Harrow Sweet and Clark’s Small Yellow Pear but do you have any of the others you photographed in your garden or did you buy some to try?

I’d like to hear your comments about them.

Dax

Thanks for posting the pictures.

I’ve grafted about 10 varieties on my existing pear trees for the past two years. Most have not flowered yet.

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Wow. What a bonanza. Did you buy some of each? We’ll expect to hear your taste-test report…

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Matt,
I bought a couple of each. Will buy a couple more before I head home. All varieties are $1.99 a pound.

I am not good at describing taste. My report is likely to be "sweet, bland, gritty, smooth, ect. :).

Besides, apples and pears, the store sells this.

That’s expensive for something I overheard the clerk told the buyer that “You have to wait until they are soft and have some brown spots. Otherwise it will upset your stomach!!!” And they charge $5.99 for that!!! Needless to say, I did not buy it.

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My husband and I taste-tested Comice, Magness and Taylor’s Gold today.
Taylor’s Gold is firm, sweet but hubby detected some after taste. Brix 13
Magness - sweet, aromatic, melting. Brix 13
Comice - very similar to Magness but sweeter and as aromatic. Brix 14.
We both like Comice and Magness in that order. Taylor’s Gold is fine, definitely better than store bought pears.

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Those Magness look really different than the ones I have seen elsewhere, they are usually more conical at the top going into the stem and not indented like that at the bottom. Also they are more yellow when ripe. It could be climate related but its different enough to get me to wonder…

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Scott,

I’ve seen quite a bit of variation in Magness’ appearance over the years. The batch I recently gave you were not the best (sorry about that).

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Hubby and I continued our pear taste- testing tonight with 3 more pears, Concorde, Harrow Sweet and Abate Fatale.
Concorde - sweet, smooth. Brix 13
Harrow Sweet - sweeter, a bit grainy. Brix 19
Abate Fetel- sweet, smooth and perfumey. Brix 15.

I like them all and thought HS was the sweetest (before measuring brix)
Hubby likes HS, too, saying it tastes like a pear should be.

So far, with 6 E pears, we like them all with HS is our favorite and Taylor’s Gold the least.

We have Potomac and my neighbor’s pears to try. We will not taste any more tonight. Too stuffed.

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Scott,
I only hope that the Cornell store did not mix up those varieties. When I see them all together, most look different from one another. My only Magness from my tree this year got stolen. I suspected a squirrel.

Abate Fatale and Potomac are the largest that they sell.

@mrsg47, now I know why you like AF, the taste and the size are impressive.
@clarkinks, i think you grow an E pear variety that weighs a pound a pear, right?

You are thinking of Duchess d’ angoulme and yes most of the pears on that tree are over a pound each. I grow Concorde, Potomac and Abate Fetel but they are young trees. Harrow sweet is a medium sized pear. Excellent choices of pears!

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Yes, Duchess. I hope mine flowers again next year.

Cornell store spells Abate Fatale this way so I copied its spelling.

Of all the 9 varieties the store sells, Harrow Sweet is the smallest in size, about the same size as Comice or even smaller.

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Tip, the spelling is incorrect. Cornell is spelling the pear as in ‘femme fatale’!

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