Pear ID help

So just this saturday my wife saw a “free pears” sign by the side of the road. This is what we got. All still quite hard, and gritty. Flavor however is excellent…somewhat acidic, unlike store pears. Can anyone ID these? Likely suspects? Thinking they could be great for wine…

sorry, the prior upload didn’t seem to take. Here the pears are, blocky and heavily russetted. btw they were ripening now in Z5, southern Wisconsin.

I may ask the farmer yet as well, if for no other reason than to collect scionwood, but curious what the folks here have to say.

Mark

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Looks like Kieffer to me.
Takes a fireblight licking and keeps on ticking. THE pear found most often on old Southern farmsteads - including the ones I grew up on and frequented as a boy - because it’s a survivor!
And while many denigrate it as being barely edible… it is, to me, what a pear is supposed to be… crisp, juicy, flavorful, and yes, gritty.
I love 'em.

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I was wondering about kieffer but thought they had very little neck; this thing certainly has the grit. Mostly, it looks like a russety packham: big and blocky.

I think Lucky hit it dead on they look like Kieffer to me.

Ok, curious what others may offer but was already suspecting kieffer because

  1. the pears are really gritty…and ripe-flavored even when rock-hard

And

2). These look to be an old-timers less-care tree …just at a guess and glance but i doubt they were sprayed heavily, etc…

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One looks like it might be different from the others. It’s hard to go by a picture but it’s in the range of appearances to be Kieffer. It might be a mixture of Kieffer and a pollinizer for Kieffer.

Found this pear tree many years ago on a very rugged farm I bought.
If you where going to plant a fruit tree there, well that’s where I found it.
Right on top of a hill. You could tell that it had been cleared ground at one time ( ~ 70 yrs ago ? ) but had grown back into forest.
What got my attention was that there was a hickory tree over a foot in diameter right next to it. And many other big trees all around it ,it was growing in the understory , yet it had fruit on it.
When I left that farm I took scionwood with me.
It’s growing in my orchard now, and has the best crop yet.
This is a very large pear. It feels really heavy.
Very crisp ! Like some Asian pears I have eaten
Very watery , very firm , not sweet. But good ! Extremely crunchy.
Any one know what variety this could be ?
I am calling "it old hickory ". For now …
@clarkinks any ideas ?

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More pic.


Just picked them today , so I would call that a late pear

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It looks a lot like Duchess D’Angoulme Largest / Best tasting pear - #25 by clarkinks. Do you have some other photos? Puctures of foliage?

Ok ,and there is no grit whatsoever

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OK, I just did a forum search for “pears refrigerator” and came up with almost nothing. I don’t know if people are aware that most pears improve dramatically when left in a cooler for 3+ weeks. Many pears are picked mature but not ‘ripe’ (which is actually too late) and then stored refrigerator cold. I just returned from a second picking at the NCGR-Corvallis which is to see if there are any late pears that are edible now…right off the tree. Another task today was getting other fruit: pawpaws, medlars, quince, etc. The main job today was getting the pears out of the coolers that were picked last month…all in preparation for the big Fruit Tasting Extravaganza upcoming on Saturnday. These gritty, semi-sweet, somewhat flavorful pears sound like they need 3-4 weeks in a cooler.

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@clarkinks
I does look" just like" the photos in your post

[quote=“clarkinks, post:10, topic:7592”]Duchess D’Angoulme
[/quote]
So for now that is a definite " Maybe" for shure .
Thanks

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Duchess has no grit whatsoever. It will eventually turn into what experts consider a melting pear but most people start to eat it in the crunchy stage. Its hard to call it melting when its hard to get it to thst stage. Everything picks on duchess here. It had a bad rot problem this year i’d never seen before. It technically does not ripen many years here until the first part of November but is often picked in September. As you mentioned its sweet enough to be eaten just like an asian pear but your better off to wait and let it turn yellow because it will get much better. i dont consider it the best quality of pears but many disagree with me and say its their favorite due to size and flavor. Regardless i overall love the pears yields and enjoy the flavor. Every garden would be better wiyh Duchess D’ Angoulme the pear worthy of being named after a Duchess! I think you all know the story -
https://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark-item/duchesse-d-angouleme-pear

" The original tree was a wilding (a tree that grows by seed from a discarded core) grown in a garden near Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France. About 1808, M. Audusson, a nurseryman at Angers, got permission to propagate the pear, then calling it the Poire des Eparonnais. In 1820, he sent a basket of the fruit to the Duchesse d’Angouleme asking permission to name the pear in her honor. Permission was granted.

Between 1880 and 1907 this tree was imported in America by Felix Gillet, a young Frenchman who realized that miners arriving in California in the wake of the Gold Rush would need fruit and nut trees to feed themselves. Gillet opened his nursery in 1871, in Nevada City, California, the epicenter of the Gold Rush, and began selling his favorite varieties. Felix Gillet propagated in California some of the best fruit and nut trees and established the foundations for the major agricultural industries of the Pacific Western states. In his 1880 Catalogue, Felix Gillet described this pear as “Very large and very juicy; productive and regular bearer.”

Even though it is uncertain if this pear was ever in commercial production, it was certainly planted from homesteads of the Sierra during the Gold Rush era . The fruit investigators of the Felix Gillet Institute have found only one Duchesse d’Angouleme tree growing wild on an old homestead in Sierra County, CA. With many decades of non-human intervention -without irrigation, fertilization, pruning or pest control- it still yearly bears a large crop!

This abundantly productive heirloom tree produces large pears that are of very good unique flavor. Its shape varies with irregular and uneven surfaces, bumpy even. It ripens to a warm yellow, thin skin netted with russet. When mature, it has firm white flesh that turns buttery and melting, with richly sweet flavor.

As of 2014 it is found for sale on-line from a couple of heirloom nurseries. Yet, the Felix Gillet Institute researchers hold doubts on whether the Duchesse d’Angouleme has been confused with the Duchesse Bronzee, which is being sold as the Duchess d’Angouleme. So who is to say, how many are actually out there…"

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@ clarkinks
Those pears ( Dutchess d’ Anguleme ?) that I posted above , have been holding up well I the refrigerator ,not my favorite to eat by itself , but I have been eating one every day with cereal for a long time, and still have quite a few so, iam happy.
One very interesting thing is:
Some have seeds
But
many have no seeds
Not even a hint of a seed .
Just empty
Many with no sign of any seed , not even aborted ones
I thought the seeds are what causes the fruit to size up .?
This is true with apples at least.
A perfect Apple has ten seeds
Lop sided apples have no seeds on the " small" side.
This pear is different .
There are several different varietys here. Should have had lots of different pollen.
Here is a pic of the empty core

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I can send you some Duchess scion and see if it does the same thing. I’m growing so many pears all of mine are loaded with seed.

Granny Durden and Winnie both did that the year before last. All the other pears were yacked by frost. Somehow the two big trees made a bumper crop of pears but with no seeds.

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If a tree is self-pollinating does that make a difference?

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? ? ? Don’t know

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Can anyone confirm that this is D’Anjou?

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