Also on October 19 I picked Winioska-Saska. This is from last year’s note -
I like the appearance of this pear. It is a late keeper and probably should be used as a culinary variety but maybe for dessert. I have grown it since 2012. It has never had fire blight although we have has 4 very bad blight years since it was grafted. It always has a good crop.
From the last Jan 19, 2023 post:
Today I took a few Winioska-Saska pears out to make an upside-down cake. The pears were still crisp and cooked beautifully still holding their shape well. Next, I will leave a few out to ripen for dessert use. I recently found out that one of its parents is Josephine de Malines. which explains its keeping qualities.
Here is a long overdue update on the late-season happenings on the Ulmer Acre.
On Oct. 30, 2024, the Redwood Empire Chapter of CRFG held an open-to-the-public apple/pear and other fall fruit tasting. Along with tasting over 50 varieties of apples, we tasted 14 European and 2 Asian pears. All but one from my orchard. Here are the results with a percentage of tasters that scored the fruit as excellent or good. Some of the fruit were a little too ripe and some were not ripened at all. The Onward scored 92% but that was only one of four fruit. The other three had total core breakdown. As I have mentioned before, Onward does not keep well but is a very good pear with its Comice heritage.
Warren 100
Harrow Sweet 100
Onward 92
Leopardo Morettini 90
Elliot 81
Dana Hovey 80
Abbe Fetel 73
Korean Giant 63
Shinko 61
The others were not ripened enough to taste.
November, 2024
The first week and second week in November I picked Josephine de Malines. Very beautiful, large fruit this year. Those went into storage and we are eating them now in mid Jan 2025. That is still my favorite pear for winter. Go to the Pear Harvest 2023 for pictures and description.
I picked Suij on November 14 along with the remaining Doyenne d’Hiver. You can read about Suij at the Raintree Nursery site here: Suij European Pear
On November 16, 2024 we had a members only fruit tasting. I again took about a dozen pears. We also tasted apples, Asian and American persimmons, pomegranate, feijoa and various citrus.
The following pears were liked though I did not keep score. Barlow, Elliot, Winioska-Saska, Winkleman, Dana Hovey, Comice and an unknown local pear similar to Comice I’m calling Darby Road.
Josephine de Malines is a variety that seems difficult to source in the US. I’ve been coveting this variety for awhile, but kind of gave up because if I am properly understanding, the timing of this pear overlaps Winter Nelis and Santa Claus, which I already have.
At what point does your Doyenne d’Hiver start to ripen?
Doyenne d’Hiver ripens in Feb or March. I should check soon. They are stored at a neighbor’s house who loves my pears and has a spare refrigerator.
For me, Winter Nelis and Santa Claus did not work out. Winter Nelis was hard to grow well, had severe scab and finally developed fireblight that kept killing limbs until I took the entire tree out. I have not missed it. For some reason, Santa Calus never grew well. I grafted it into three mature trees at different times and did not get enough growth to fruit. Last year I cut the final one out.
Josephine has been a winner. My first scion from the Corvallis repository was grafted in 2012 onto a mature tree. It has never had fireblight and produces a good crop each year. They mature late October to early November and are put into common refrigerator storage. I attempt to keep the temperature in the mid 30s but often it is higher as I don’t have a garage-ready refrigerator. They last until late Jan. We start eating them in December after the Comice pears are done. As of today, Jan 18, 2025, we are almost finished with our 2024 inventory.
Hi David. Glad to see that you are growing great fruit at your place. I have been travelling to Hood River the last couple of years to sample apples and pears during the Hood River Fruit Loop. I have discovered a very good E. Pear, one that you would definitely enjoy: Concord E. Pear. I have several others that I enjoy and you are welcome to some scion wood of any that I have. I also discovered a great apple called; Hokuto. I have some scion of it too. I am grafting interstems to produce apples in two years: EMLA 111 x Bud 9 Interstem and then apple variety. We used this method at Luther Burbank Farm in Sepastopol for the apple fence at the request of Paul Vossen. Stay in touch. btw. Mark Albert gave me some Adara Plum and I am using it for interstems with great success. All good. Gregory.
Gregory,
Great to hear from you. I have Concord pear and it is just now beginning to fruit so I haven’t had a chance to evaluate it. I grafted what was supposed to be Hokuto about 15 years ago. I’m certain it is mislabeled and it has never done well.
Some of the best trees in my orchard are interstems. Interesting that you mentioned that because my right-hand helper with our chapter tree growing, Bob McCarville, grafted 14 of those last year on some of our leftover rootstocks. They are nice trees now.
I really miss Mark! We are also growing some interstem trees with Adara and I have several in my orchard grafted to myro sprouts with cherry, aprium, apricot and peaches grafted to the Adara. The only variety that has not done well is English Morello tart cherry. It is alive and had a few fruit this past season but is growing very slowly.
Christopher,
Sad news about the Doyenne d’Hiver. I went to the neighbor’s house on Friday. He had moved them into another refrigerator in his garage. They were all soft with 75% totally unusable. The remaining few were too ripe - soft with a loss of all flavor.
I’m almost certain these were picked at the proper time. My only explanation is that the refrigerator temperature was too warm. They should have lasted another month according to what I have read, My last four Josephine de Malines were taken out of the cooler and are sitting on the counter, They are perfect. But those were in my refrigerator stored at mid-30s.
Next year I hope to do better. This pear journey has been exciting and sometimes disappointing. I’m glad my livelihood doesn’t depend on my pear growing!
Here is an update on P. Barry. Go back to post 209 to refresh your memory. Hedrick says it is a very late-ripening pear. I took one out of the refer about 6 weeks ago and left it on the counter until there seemed to be adequate softening - 3ish weeks. It did not taste good. Very tart with a lot of astringency.
I took another out 2 weeks ago. It is softening but I’m going to wait another week to try it. I’ll keep you posted.
That’s certainly disappointing, but I’ve been there and experienced that. The worst was in 2020 with whatever these pears are. They typically get picked in early November (ripen around Christmas), but it was unusually warm that year and they prematurely went bad. Then the huge, old tree toppled over to add insult to injury.
In August I posted information and photos of Rousselet of Stuttgart x Dr. Jules Guyot Hybrid V - post #126. Several people wanted scions. It matures 2 to 3 weeks after Bartlett and is excellent directly from the tree as well as being a beautiful pear. Yesterday, I received scions from the USDA Corvallis, OR Repository, and have some to share with the group here. If you are interested post your desire here and then we will communicate via private email to arrange shipment.
Adam,
I did not say it was blight-resistant. I have had it grafted for over 10 years with no blight. We have had four very bad blight years during that time but it didn’t bloom during the first two. No problem. That said, Vavilov Hybrid VII, a sister seedling, died of fireblight in 2022.
I hesitate to say that. I have many European pear varieties that are known to be blight-sensitive and have not had any significant problems. But I also lost all Bartlett and Bartlett clones during the 2015 epidemic as well as many trees and grafts of other varieties. In 2022, I lost several trees and had a lot of blossom and twig blight on blight-resistant varieties. Though Joseph Postman reported that these Hybrids have been disease-resistant in Corvallis, OR, I lost the sister seedling Hybrid VII in 2022 along with a Best Ever tree beside it. I’m very happy to send you scions and let you try it. It would be good to know how it does in your area. It certainly should be quite cold hardy. Send my your snail mail address
