I don’t recall anything abnormal, but I can miss details when my mind is on something else. I only ate a few and the rest went to family.
I picked what passed the lift test. It only took a few days to pick them. The following week, two that I missed fell to the ground overripe.
Are you saying they won’t ripen off the tree despite a natural separation?
Thanks for the feedback on Aurora. It would be nice if others would share their experiences with ripening and tasting. I picked several varieties today but don’t have time to photograph and discuss them. I’ve been quite busy getting ready for the Sunday afternoon apple/pear and other fruit tasting that our local CRFG chapter had yesterday. We tasted 50 varieties of apples and about 15 pears, all but one of the pears from my orchard. Up date to follow.
Aurora is exceptional in all ways. That was developed in Geneva, NY and released in 1964 as NY 7620. It is Marguerite Marillat x Bartlett. It is good enough it made it to curator choice under postman and is also not only called Aurora but is PI 541119 at the USDA in Corvallis.
This is what the USDA says
“Aurora = PI 541119 (CPYR 25.001) - Pyrus communis
A delicious and attractive fall pear. Originated in Geneva, N.Y., by New York State Agriculture
Experiment Station. Named and introduced in 1964. Marguerite Marillat x Bartlett. Fruit: large; pyriform;
skin bright yellow, slightly russeted, sometimes blushed, very attractive; flesh melting, smooth, juicy,
sweet, aromatic, high quality for dessert purposes; longer storage and shelf life than Bartlett; ripens with or
just after Bartlett; very well suited for the home gardener and fresh fruit market; keeps well in cold storage
until December. Tree: vigorous; spreading; productive; fire blight resistance similar to Bartlett; has
performed well in New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Ontario.”
I was totally mistaken about how to handle Aurora. The writeup calls it a fall pear, but it matures with Bartlett, so I thought of it as a summer pear and tried to treat it as such. I found that it did not ripen properly without chilling. It finally softened a little, but the texture was rubbery with a so-so flavor. I know I picked it at the proper time - they were falling and those I picked came off with a gentle touch and lift.
Correct. The Honeysweet’s are getting rubbery instead of softening and developing flavor. They still taste green in this condition. I’ve tried letting them sit out and sit in the fridge to no avail either way. So far they don’t behave like the Seckel parent.
The texture and flavor description as quoted from @clarkinks was spot on for mine after they were in the fridge too. The only pear I’ve had to chill in the past was an unknown winter pear that came off the tree in late October/early November and ripened around mid-December. What concerns me now is that I have a plethora of other pear varieties not producing yet that I’ll have to go through this scenario with in the future if they actually produce.
Thanks for the advice!
Last Sunday, October 20, the Redwood Empire Chapter of the CRFG held an apple and pear tasting, along with a few persimmons (Asian and American) and late plums. We tasted 50 apples, 12 European pears, and 2 Asian pears. This event was open to the public, and many tasters had been only exposed to commercial fruit. My ranking system had 5 columns with facial icons ranging from happy to very sad. The first two columns I considered great and good and the percentage given below is a total of those two and bad he total of the last two. Since we had varying numbers to taste the varieties I computed a percent for each.
ABBE FETEL - 3 weeks chill, 1 week ripening - perfect. 78% good/16%bad
BEURRE SUPERFIN - 3 weeks chill, 1 week ripening - all three pears had core breakdown. As I have mentioned in the past, I have had a problem ripening this one properly. We tasted a couple at home earlier that were outstanding but the ones stored for only a few weeks did not ripen properly. I probably did not pick them soon enough.
COLD SNAP had had only 2 weeks chill and didn’t ripen properly in a week out of the frig. The scoring sheet was lost.
DANA HOVEY - 3 weeks chill, 1 week ripening - perfect. 80%/8% This one also ripens well without chill.
DUCHESSE BRONZEE - Picked the day before, some dropping but not ripe. 68%/18%
DUCHESSE d’ANGOULEME - Picked the day before, some dropping but not ripe. 25%/45%
ELLIOT - 3 weeks chill, 1 week ripening - not quite ripe. 69%/10%
HARROW SWEET - Only 2 fruit to taste - very ripe- some core breakdown Only 8 tasters. 100%
LEOPARDO MORETTINI - 3 1/2 weeks chill, 1 week ripening - perfect. 90%/10%
ONWARD - 3 weeks chill, 1 week ripening -only one fruit of 4 was still tastable but it was great. 92% gave it the top rating. 8% poor. This is another that needs to be eaten promptly. Very little or no chill is needed. This would be one of the family’s top pears if it lasted better.
TAYLOR GOLD - Picked the day before. Should have picked it a month ago to chill but it was high on a large tree and overlooked until they started falling. It ranked 72% good and only 6% poor.
WARREN - A couple of weeks chill and a week ripening - perfect - maybe a bit too soft and juicy for some but 90% great and 10% good without any bad rankings. There is more good news about Warren in this area. One of our members is an excellent organic grower. This year he has sold over 2000 pounds to a cooperative and they have had orders for boxes of Warren pears from local schools. He also sells apples and other pears at a local farmer’s market and Warren is always his top-selling pear.
Bottom line: The Bronzee, Duchesse, Taylor Gold and Cold Snap were not ripe yet or needed chilling.
Every Harrow Sweet and Warren only had great ratings. Onward had 92% great and only a few poor.
Honeysweet had been somewhat of a disappointment here in northern California. In MS it was great and I thought better than Seckel. I find it to be a good firm crunchy tasty pear directly off the tree after they are ripe enough to start falling - but not good enough to make it to the ones I devote refrigerator space to. The tree is great and has been totally fire blight resistant. Since I don’t use those pears very much, the tree has been grafted to many other varieties which are doing well.
Mine has not fruited yet, does it taste like Seckel? I put it in as a bigger replacement for my Seckel that the yellow jackets and hornets seem to love so much. The descriptions say it needs fridge time to ripen properly.
I cut open a Honeysweet tonight that felt improved over the rubbery texture it had been exhibiting. Plenty of juice and the texture was much improved. Smelled like a pear, but the taste reminded me of soap. Definitely no Seckel flavor yet. There’s a few samples left in the fridge, but I’m thinking better luck next year.
The bees were hard on my standard size Seckel tree this year, but they left the Honeysweets alone. I can’t blame them so far.
Our young Seckel pear only had two that I could eat; and they were good.
The two Kieffer pear trees were loaded with the largest pears that I have ever picked (I’m 81 and picked a lot of pears). They are six years old and looking great.
I have 12 gallons of pear wine brewing in the barn and plenty for jam and the neighbors. Mid-Missouri zone 6b.
For those who want another Seckel type, look at Dana Hovey. It is a winner. Later ripening and will ripen without chilling but will store much better than Seckel.
Pears as you know are tricky. The harvest window could be July though eating time is not until many months have passed. Shenandoah is another pear like that. There are many pears that are storage pears now. They are bred for the new way we buy pears as a society. Pears also drastically improve as they age. Many times i have decided a statement about a pear was not accurate but given time found it to be very accurate.
I grafted Easter Beurre for this purpose. I’m not sure yet how or if this is going to work in northern PA. I’ve yet to keep any pear for more than 2 months and Easter Beurre is supposed to reach full ripeness by March after picking late in the growing season.
I learned with apples not to judge fruit quality until after a few crops, especially if it is a new tree. The worst was Honeycrisp, which took five crops before it got dialed in correctly. Only recently have I expanded pear varieties, but I assume it could be the same.
I asked Cummins Nursery if Aurora needs cold storage before ripening. The reply, “They don’t need it but they sugar up more in cold storage, which is usually favorable.”
Mine was great without cold storage, but I guess it makes sense to try one off the tree and put the rest in cold storage. Then try one every few days to see how the quality changes over the course of cold storage. Maybe some locations need the cold storage.
Christopher,
My Doyenne d’Hiver aka Easter Beurre pears are falling now. I picked about 10 pounds to store for the winter The rest will probably be critter food and go to the compost pile. I don’t think I can use more than that and it is not one that friends would want to take up their refrigerator space for several months. It may or may not ripen well. Big and handsome pears. the brown pears are sunburned due to a couple of very hot days.
This is a tree that I will topwork. It is too productive for our needs.
Wow. I won’t have to worry about sunburned fruit here. I was more concerned with the growing season being long enough. I grafted 2 limbs of an unknown, unliked Asian pear to Easter Beurre 2 years ago for a trial and the remainder became Concorde. It sounds like this variety is an abundant producer in your environment. How is the flavor of yours when they do ripen?
So far my EB seems to be a more vigorous grower than Concorde. How long until yours fruited?
I have only had one year to evaluate it. Did not try it as a dessert fruit and I don’t remember cooking any either. So, I really don’t know - it will last until spring in your refrigerator. It was grafted to a very vigorous well-established calleryana seedling and fruited in two years.
We have been busy on the Ulmer Acre with non-fruit growing things so I’m behind in posting. On Oct. 19, 2024, I picked Doyenne Madame Levavasseur. This pear was grafted with scions from the USDA Repository in 2011 and has never been evaluated well. I’m not certain that this variety is true to name as it is supposed to be similar to Pound - a very large winter pear. I had a great crop on the grafted limb this year so I decided to take up some of our limited refrigerator space for them to mature further. Tasting directly from the tree was surprising. Good sweetness and crisp juicy flesh. I expect it to ripen well.
Here is the GRIN note:
Listed in 1912 catalog of Pepinieres Andre Leroy, Angers, France as a comparatively new variety at that time. Fruit large and resembles that of Pound in form. Skin thick, tough, greenish-yellow in color, with some blemish. Flesh reasonably firm in texture at maturity, somewhat coarse, moderately juicy. Mild in flavor, superior to Pound in dessert quality. Late keeper, ripens very slowly. Tree extremely lusty, dark green foliage. Moderately susceptible to fire blight. - H. Hartman, Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, 1957
