Anybody familiar with summer crisp pears? Suppose to be a cross of something and claim to ripen on the tree like an asian pear, but looks like a euro. Is this just another keifer knock off or is it worth while for fresh eating?
Selected and then released by U of MN in the 1980’s. It is a small fruited pear that is supposed to be picked and eaten at the green/ripe stage while still crispy. My tree bears a tremendous amount almost every year. It is not good for canning (too small of fruit) and is mediocre at best if eaten when ripe. The key is to eat it while crisp. I pick and put them in my refrigerator so they stay crispy of up to about 14 days.
Some years the fruit is very sweet and some years it is not.
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Thanks. You do not sound too impressed with it, so at $50 think I will skip it. It was at a local nursery and the tree ripening feature grabbed my attention.
I have one. Yes, it gets overloaded with small pears. They aren’t that impressive, so I cut them in quarters and cored them, froze them, peelings and all. Then I put them thawed in a cake pan, sprinkled a little sugar or Stevia over them, and spread cheapo yellow cake mix dough over them. You can also add a little cinnamon if you wish. Makes a very tasty cake. The tree bears every year, even if my other varieties don’t, so it is very hardy. Rather bland fresh, and I wasn’t impressed with green ones, either. I tried to graft another variety onto it, but the grafts didn’t take.
I cut mine down. The birds always got them before I could pick them…was not overly impressed with the taste.