That pear is gorgeous! Just spitballing, but here are some possible names linked to its heritage:
And here are some that try to capture that beautiful color in words:
I agree that Aurora is not so close to Bartlett in flavor. It is not chewy for me though, texture wise it is nearly identical to Bartlett. I would keep them for a couple weeks in the fridge.
Aurora is not always reliable for me as it ripens in the heat and often get overripe too fast. So I took it out. Maybe I should have kept it. It did make more room for my Magness when I took it out, and that is my favorite pear overall now: it is now reliably setting a large crop of great pears. They are in the fridge now for the most part, a couple already eaten and most should be better after a few weeks in the fridge.
I probably should have refrigerated them but this was a trial since they dropped so early. If they do the same thing next year I will chill them.
Do you have a thought as to why they matured so early?
My pears are ripening early this year. Some more than others. Maybe it’s just the year for that. I picked comice today and checked seeds on the bird pecked ones. They were all almost black. Normally I pick them in a couple weeks.
I have a few Comice that have fallen so I probably should check them out. It is early for me also. Usually the third week in September. This latest heat spell will break tomorrow, and I’m planning a marathon pear picking!
That’s about when I pick Comice. I lost a couple crops of asian pears. Went to pick them at the normal time and they already had core break down. This is the first year I have experienced such early ripening. Guess I need to pay closer attention next year.
Hi David,
Would you mind taking a picture of the new leaves of your Korean Giant? I would like to compare it to the unknown Asian pear I got from Ison’s. I notice the Hosui new leaves have a red tint to them, whereas the Shinseiki leaves are all light green. The unknown variety (labeled as KG) looks similar to the Hosui leaves with red tint to them. I’m hoping that it will turn out to be a Korean Giant.
The red tint is not uncommon for many asian pears. I’m thinking that until it fruits you will not really know. The upside is asian pears fruit quick.
My KG is a mature tree and not putting out vigorous new growth but I’ll look.
Thanks for your super thoughts. I’ll contact the pear curator at Corvallis and pass along our suggestions when I ask for scions.
Recent picks:
Beurre Superfin
This is an outstanding pear if you can ripen it properly. I had a tree for many years that never performed well. The pears were not very large and I never seemed to pick them at the proper time or else I didn’t ripen them properly. The only year I was able to ripen them well, it won the pear part of our annual apple/pear tasting. I think there were about 15 varieties to taste. That tree was removed several years ago. Two new varieties are grafted on the sprouts from the OHxF513 rootstock. They seem to be growing well.
I grafted scions on an established tree in 2021. This year’s fruit are beautiful. I only hope I picked them early enough!
Here are two narratives:
Originated at Angers, France, from unguarded seed sown in 1837. Added to A.P.S. catalog list in 1858. Fruit medium to large in size, roundish-obovate with pointed neck and fleshy stem. Skin smooth, greenish-yellow in color, occasionally blushed. Flesh very fine extremely juicy, quite free of grit, melting. Sweet with acidulous or vinous spicy flavor rates among the best in dessert quality. Probably too soft in texture to withstand commercial handling. Midseason. Tree vigorous, spreading in habit, clean, productive. Moderately susceptible to fire blight. – H. Hartman, Oregon Ag. Experiment Station, 1957.
A round, conical, medium-sized green pear with flesh tapering to the short stout stem, which I regard as of the finest flavor - sweet, melting, juicy, perfumed. The late Dr. Howe, co-author of The Pears of New York, once described it to me as probably the best flavored of the European pears as grown in this climate. Bunyard called it ‘one of the best half-dozen pears, by som preferred to Comice.’ Originated near Angers, France, in the middle of the 19th century. Late September. Can be brought to ripeness in about 30 days. – Robert Nitschke, Southmeadow Fruit Gardens Catalog, 1976.
The second pick this week was Paragon. It was originally introduced as Yungen but Paragon is the name used at present.
It was highly regarded at my CRFG pear tasting last year. Here is some information from the Oregon Breeding Program:
A pear breeding program was conducted at Oregon State University’s Southern Oregon Experiment Station, now part of the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center, from 1911 to the 1980s, A number of crosses were made with ‘Cornice’ as a parent, often with ‘Max Red Bartlett’ as the other parent. Two named cultivars, ‘Rogue Red’ (‘Comice’ x (‘Seckel’ x Farrningdale’)) and ‘Cascade’ (‘Comice’ x ‘Max Red Bartlett’), both with red peel color, were released in 1969 and 1986, respectively. Two other products of that program, initially designated 633E and 2-301, did not have red color but were selected for their superior eating quality. Local southern Oregon growers are producing these two cultivars in small quantities. Cultivar 633E has been named ‘Paragon’ and is a cross of ‘Comice’ x ‘Max Red Bartlett’. The skin is green and very palatable. The fruit consistently ranks extremely high in pear tastings conducted at the Research Center, ‘Paragon’ is ‘Bartlett’-shaped, blooms with ‘Bosc’, turns yellow with ripening, and matures between ‘Bartlett’ and ‘Comice’. The storage life is approximately four months.
Some points that may be useful for someone growing are:
The fruit holds texture and quality for a minimum of three months at 0 deg. C. The optimal firmness for harvest is 4.5-5.9 kg. A minimum of 14 days of chilling are needed to ensure uniform ripening. ‘Paragon’ produces a vigorous tree with good annual crops. The tree flowers with ‘Bosc’ and matures after ‘Bartlett’ but before ‘Comice’
Following up with my Aurora: I tried 2 so far. The first I misjudged and wound up with a rubbery texture that smelled like a pear, but tasted green for lack of a better description. The second sat out too long. The core was rotting, but the stem end was edible. That part I would describe as buttery in texture, but the flavor didn’t really distinguish itself from any other pear. My tastebuds couldn’t detect the Bartlett parentage. Nothing really unique.
I removed another from the fridge, so hopefully the next sample goes better.
Two old Czech pomology books state that it requires “good deep soil” and protected warm locations. The tree won’t do well and have that excellent quality of fruit if planted at higher altitudes, in poor/rocky soils" or in drought. Both seemed to pay particular attention to watering compared to other varieties. I was very tempted to get it, but droughts seem to be getting more frequent here.
Yes, I’m still learning about Aurora. Maybe next year.
We tried Beurre Superfin two days after picking. It was excellent. A few of the pears had soft areas around the stem so those have been tasted and used in cooking. I have a few in the refer for a week or so before formal ripening and tasting. My original tree never grew well. I think the conditions were good. The new graft is on an old well-established tree and is growing extremely well. It fruited the third year from grafting.
I used a couple of the Beurre Superfin pears picked a few days ago for cooking in an upsidedown skillet pear cake along with freshly picked Warrens and two ripe California pears. On my first attempt with that recipe last Jan. 19, I used Winioska Saska pears that had been stored in the refrigerator since Nov. All of the pears cooked beautifully.
Here is the result:
I have been fighting bronchitis for the past two weeks and am behind in picking pears. I got Warren picked a few days ago but have several small grafts and slowly growing trees that need picking today. My most urgent need is to get the Comice fruit that are mature into the refer. That is one variety that I don’t want to miss picking at the most opportune time!
If I get hold of some scions, I’ll try to graft it into a Lucas tree. That one pulls water and nutrients like crazy so I hope it could do well even in years like this one. The old pomology books use antiquated language but in the case of Superfin the descriptions are downright irresistibly poetic.
Which is why I added Superfin to my list of much wanted scions for next spring. I have Abate Fetel, Beurre Superfin, Bartlett/Williams, Doyenne du comice, and Luscious among others on that list. All fireblight susceptible, but hoping to get a few fruit to try.
