yeah, we have cracked li pits by the hundreds over several years and concluded being a futile endeavor.
reminds me of the cashier who was tasked to hand-count a million bucks, all in one-dollar paper bills. She stopped coutning at 796,567$. When asked by her boss as to why she stopped counting she reasoned that it has been “trending correctly the entire time so it must be right all the way” 
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I didn’t intend to crack them all open. I was about to throw them all out and I decided to crack one open out of curiosity. Since the first one was empty, I cracked open the second, third, etc…
So, after some discussion in other threads, I pulled the trigger and ordered a honey jar jujube. It’s supposedly the most kid-friendly jujube, and it’s precocious and easy to maintain.
I really flip flipped a lot between a harrow sweet (plus asking around for pollinating scion wood to graft on) and the jujube, but reading some of the pear threads scared me off, talking about diseases, years to bear, pruning, etc. The jujube just seems easier. I’m not gonna lie though, all the talk of pears in this thread has me considering if I can squeeze just one more tree somewhere in my yard. I just don’t know where it would go, though!
Short of visiting someone or some member with both, you won’t really know unless you try it yourself. 
Who knows pears could be end up the easiest? Every site is unique and like you pointed out, you have a local friend growing peaches near you with little to no fuss. That’s really unique because most people would assume there would be lots of spraying involved in your area.
I’m glad to hear you settled on something though. I think many people would be interested to hear your results with your Honey Jar. Everyone posting in the jujube threads are planting at least 2-3 cultivars, that’s not even talking about how many jujube trees they have. Most growers like @jujubemulberry, they can’t even imagine a time where they didn’t have more than a single jujube tree.
I wouldn’t write off persimmon completely. I know you didn’t have the best of experience with Hachiya, but ripening with bananas doesn’t really ripen them correctly to remove astringency. You get softening without the benefit of ready to eat ripening. Plus American persimmon have more flavor and can be sweeter than kakis, the disadvantage is just fruit size. American persimmon in my view is easier to grow than jujubes and are more ornamental in my view. The foliage in the fall varies from red to red yellow. The deer, squirrels don’t really touch them because of the astringency. If you forget pawpaws and jujubes, they will disappear from either animals or rot. If you forget American persimmon, you really still can come back later to get them because they can benefit from bletting come frost time. Actually, if snow comes early, it looks like hanging Christmas ornaments. The orange spheres have a nice contrast on a bare tree in the pure white snow.
Around here they grow like weeds and I’ve never sprayed them
For anyone who was interested in my selection process, I have another update!
Largely due to y’alls persuasiveness about pears and persimmons, I couldn’t get the idea of them out of my head, and I was super conflicted about not growing them in my yard. Then, as I was visiting my parents’ house in NJ over the holidays, I had a realization: I can plant persimmons and pears in THEIR yard! My parents live about an 1.5 hours away in zone 7A coastal NJ (on the barnegat bay), and I visit them frequently over the spring/summer. Win for me, win for them, everyone wins!
I purchased a matsumoto wase fuyu off of OGW to plant in their front yard, because it gets full sun there, and is sheltered from the bay/saltwater by their house. I picked a fuyu type because a few posts in this forum, and the customer service people at OGW, indicated that it is slightly tastier than Jiro types, and equally easy to grow. My mom loves the crunchy non-astringent types, so that’s also why I chose the fuyu.
Here’s the big excitement, though: There is a random wild callery pear volunteer growing in my parents’ back yard! It’s approximately 20 feet tall, and grows about 15 feet away from the water, right next to the fence that separates my parents’ yard from their neighbor. Neither my parents nor their neighbors planted the tree, so I think a bird was sitting on the fence and “deposited” the seed that eventually grew into the callery pear. Neither my parents nor their neighbors care much about the tree, so I can graft edible pear scions to it!
Now the question is: what pears do I graft?!? Being near the bay, it is especially extra important that the pears be spray free, so any recommendations would be really appreciated!
@Itmaybejj lives in my general area… you recommended harrow sweet and harrow delight. Would you be willing to trade any scions of those with me, or I could paypal or venmo you for postage? My list of things I grow is in my profile, if you’re interested Are there any other spray-free varieties you’d recommend?
@PharmerDrewee also lives somewhat near me… do you have spray-free pear recommendations and/or scions you could share/trade? You mentioned asian pears, do you have any favorites? Again, I could trade or paypal/venmo if you have any scions you think would be good!
Reading through this forum, I’ve also read that clark’s little yellow pear is super easy to grow, if anyone has any experience with that? ? I’m a total newbie about pears, and am super appreciative of any advice!
As an FYI: I have never grafted before. But I’ve been internet-researching, and my plan is to essentially chop the whole tree off about 1 or 2 feet above the fence, and topwork/bark-graft onto the two “main” trunks (which are about 4" across), with 2 scions per trunk (to increase likelihood of healing/taking), and then also W&T onto the few smaller twigs/branches that are coming out of the two main trunks and the third tinier trunk. Does that seem like it would work?
Well that’s convenient. I have Potomac as well as Harrow Sweet and Harrow Delight, and do recommend them all. HD ripens about a month earlier than the other two.
I’m…not up for wrapping and shipping scions (I’m a lazy, lazy man), but if your route takes you through central NJ I’d be more than happy to point you at the trees and let you do some of my annual pruning for me and run off with the spoils!
Sending PM!