Attached is a link about Kieffer pears that mostly match my experience and I thought it would be interesting to read. I didn’t post this to change anyone’s opinion of Kieffer. We have talked about this pear on several occasions but this is the best assessment I’ve seen. Is my Kieffer an improved version. It might be and there are others on our forum more capable of deciding that point. I think it would be interesting to hear others’ opinions, good or bad. Kieffer has withstood the test of time in my area long after the old houses that are nearby.
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Auburn… a clip from that article below…
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perhaps the most important reason to love your Kieffer pear tree was for its ability to survive, and even thrive, in less-than-ideal growing conditions. Kieffers are resistant to fire blight, a disease that wipes out most pear trees grown in areas with hot, humid summers. Blight is the reason that European varieties like Bartlett, Bosc, Anjou and Comice have not been successfully grown in Texas.
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I have tried most of those other varieties mentioned above, and they all died of fire blight in year 4-5.
Perhaps I need to try a Kieffer here in TN… Zone 7a.
I have considered it before, but the description is usually not so good as you mentioned. Talked me out of it.
Several years ago we rented a place while we built a new home, and there was a single large pear tree in the back yard… it produced a rather large somewhat lumpy green pear, that ripened to yellow. They made very good pear preserves and were good for eating fresh once yellow/ripened well. Before that they were quite hard.
I have wondered what variety that was… now I am wondering if it was a Kieffer.
My Dad had one in his back yard that sure looked and ripened the same… and tasted the same.
Lots of old home sites here in my county have that same pear variety. Perhaps they are Kieffers ?
When i do try pears again… I may have to try one of those despite what many say.
Anyone else in TN or near by State here in the hot humid south east, have a Kiefffer (or other favorite variety) that thrives and produces good enough fruit ?
I need to put a Pear Variety on my “try next time” list.
Thanks
TNHunter
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Do your kieffer sweeten up? My kieffer are never sweet, so that description doesn’t seem to apply here. I do like crunchy pears though and want them to be sweet. Maybe the author is talking about a different kieffer. I could send the author some of mine and they could film a youtube reaction video for my enjoyment 
My wife made some sweet pickles from kieffer last year and they were SO good.
Parker is a fairly crunchy pear that I like (although supposedly a FB problem). I wouldn’t call it sweet like some of the melting pears, but a little time in the fridge, and then set out, and they are sweet enough for me…and much different than kieffer. For kicks, we dehydrated some kieffer and parker directly from the tree. The parker were sugar bombs in comparison, and the kieffer were cardboard that found the trash can…so dehydrating kieffer directly off the tree wasn’t a great plan.
I don’t know which Kieffer he has nor do I know which one I have . The one I have was labeled as Kieffer but probably is one of the improved types. My Kieffer normally gets sweet tasting and has a crunchy texture. It also has a tough peeling. I think other than size/shape it is similar to my Orient.
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If a person is looking for a soft buttery super sweet pear they might be disappointed in Kieffer. At my location Orient has been blight resistant and has a similar quality pear as Kieffer. These two blooms almost at the exact same times making them good pollination partners.
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The old home place pears that are common in my county… I bet are keiffer.
I know where several are located and one thar was a heavy and dependable producer of very good pears. We could pick them hard and a little green… and keep in 5 gal buckets in the basement with a trash bag covering… and check then about once a week. They would soften up nicely and get very sweet. We ate some fresh but mostly made pear preserves with them… very good stuff.
There was only one tree in that backyard… and I looked around and found no others near by… and it produced plenty of pears.
I may just collect some scionwood from that tree and graft it onto FB resistent rootstock.
Could put a orient in there too for better pollination.
TNHunter
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Our house that we bought 5 years ago came with a big Kieffer, about 20’ tall. Sadly it didn’t put any fruit in this year and seems to be dying. I will probably cut it down and replace it with a peach this winter. Ironically the previous owners also planted a young pear that turned out to be a Kieffer as well. I am not sure that was on purpose or not. It seems to be on dwarfing rootstock so won’t be as big and produce as much as our other tree. Before I knew the other tree was dying I grafted much of the little tree over to dripping honey this spring!
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I have a Kieffer tree that is also heavily grafted. This is the first year I’ll get a chance to try it. I can say one thing for sure it that it doesn’t seem to be bothered by bugs nearly as much as my other pears.
I’ve hard they can be very gritty so I’m looking forward to seeing how mine turn out.
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That sounds like a Kieffer pear to me by your description. I had a Kieffer pear tree at my old house some years back. They were exactly ad you described them. We made pear butter out of most of them. I liked eating the pears before they got really ripe. To me they had the texture of an apple, sort of crunchy. I do not like pears that are that " buttery" texture. That , to me, is a sloppy mess to try and eat.