I haven’t tried a lot of different Asian pear varieties, but I have tasted Hosui, Ya Li, Shinseiki and Shinko so far (mostly from farmer’s market). None of those had unpalatable skin and all of them were sweet and refreshing. I am guessing with enough sweetness the skin should be less of an issue. At worst, the russeted skin had the same texture as a russeted apple. If anything, Pomme Gris is the most russeted of any apple/pear I tried, but it still had a nutty/coconuty flavor. May be, I am same as your neighbor on this 
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Just a quick complaint. My apples and pears have been decimated by deer. This has been the worst deer pressure yet. The sprays do nothing. The net I put up apparently does nothing as they are eating the pears through the net or pushing the net down and going to town. We had one buck in the spring that is terrorizing the neighborhood, and now there seems to be even more of them. I feel I am usually pretty good at figuring these things out, but I’m out of ideas. Soap… didn’t work. Noisy things like windchimes, no difference. If I didn’t have a great year for peaches and plums, I would be seriously discouraged at this point. There are pears higher up in the trees, so I will hopefully get something.
More of a concern is that these deer probably aren’t going anywhere. Why would they? This means it will get harder every year? Ugh.
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We have continuous rain recently, this is the result of my Superior, flavor Queen and other near ripen plums
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If possible,maybe try one of those water scare sprayers.
https://gadgets-reviews.com/review/832-best-motion-activated-sprinklers.html
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You need some fencing around the tree. I have 5’ woven wire around my trees. You could probably devise a way to make it removable if it would bother neighbors, but year-round protection would be preferable. Dwarf trees aren’t hardy enough here, so my trees are tall. I pick the higher pears with a Twister that someone recommended on here a few years back. You could probably search on this forum for the supplier, if they still sell them. For the very high ones I use a pole from a swimming pool net with a wooden pole extension besides and a metal picker basket on the end. It’s a pain, but can’t use ladders much on the steep hillside. The few at the very very top I leave for the birds and squirrels.
unfortunitly as urban sprawl gets bigger so will the deer population. we are encroaching on their lands all the time. why spend days foraging in the woods when they can get the same calories in a evening in our yards. people think they are all cute and everything until theyre eating thier prime roses, peaches or wind up on the hoods of their cars. if i lived in a area that had that kind of issues, id have a crossbow and quietly cull them. even if you dont eat the meat you could donate it to the local soup kitchens. most of them have local butchers that charge very little to process it for them. i love venison, esp. from a area they eat alot of human food. the meat is excellent. theres a reason the old farmers put their animals on junk apples a fews weeks to a month before butchering. 
good luck!
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I had another green gage today 9 days from the first one and it was amazing. Best piece of fruit I have grown. I wish I had a bowl full.
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That’s just not true. The deer weren’t a big problem even when I was a kid, and I’m 37. When I was little my grandfather and uncle were able to keep small-scale commercial gardens in the woods without doing anything to protect the crops from deer. Generations ago, there was hardly any forest here. The deer population has simply skyrocketed. They do best not in their natural habitat but in suburban environments. Despite the dangers inherent with heavier traffic on the roads, they have a much higher population density in suburban settings because of the abundance of food.
An even bigger problem is the bears. I haven’t seen one yet but they’re around. When I was a kid the bear population of my state was zero.
The deer and bear are encroaching on us, not the other way around. We need a lot more hunters. The Wall Street Journal actually wrote a good article about this recently. See here.
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Joe, I’m going to have to agree – the populations of just about all critters is greater than 50 or 60 years ago. From birds and butterflies to buffalo and bears. Deer play all day in my sister’s backyard in Campbellsville, KY. As children…observed just one deer in 18 years…despite barefooted and a rifle on my shoulder on many a non-school day…several hundred acres of timber I often covered…they didn’t have posted and no tresspassing signs back then either!
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Also, Joe, our tax dollars have repopulated bears, deer, elk, eagles, fish, and so forth…
bears opening cars and homes…some ‘animal lover’ has blood on their hands as these relocated animals kill surburban people in more and more places…and make camping in a 6 foot tent in the forest very dangerous.
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its a combo of better more abundant food, less hunting, and because you cant hunt in a urban sprawl, its afforded them protection that way. not to mention all the diseases the ticks on them carry. like you said when these areas were woods 30 yrs ago there was barely any deer because they were able to be hunted. i dont think anyone in those areas now would be too happy hearing a high powered rifle go off at 7 in the morning.
You can hunt deer anywhere in the suburbs or city in my state, with a bow. There are some properties big enough in suburban areas for rifle hunting to be legal. I remember sometime in the 1990s the deer population in some shoreline state park was so high that they were eating the bark off the trees and were more or less starving to death in the winter. The state approved a hunt and all these animal rights activists protested, calling the hunters names as they went in. They’d prefer if the animals starved to death due to overpopulation and no natural predators. I’m not sure if such a hunt would be approved again. The state legislature refuses to even legalize limited bear hunts in one county.
Bow hunting for deer in my yard is one of those “someday” things for me. My biggest problem with it is that I don’t want to have to deal with a hysterical property owner if I wind up having to retrieve a dead deer from his or her yard.
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When I was a kid I’d occasionally see a deer while playing out behind my grandfather’s property which was in a rural area. You’d occasionally see them way back in the woods, behind the farm my grandfather grew up on. Occasionally, as in if you’re a kid playing in the woods for half the day all summer long, you might see one or two. Nowadays I’m living in a "city’ of about 40,000 and the deer are out every night. Some of them travel in large groups. “Deer-resistant” plants like arborvitaes aren’t always safe from the deer. Driving around there is sometimes visible winter damage on people’s arborvitae plants but only within the reach of deer. They get all plump in the summer eating people’s hostas, flowers, etc but then in the winter they’re getting by on whatever they can reach. It’s not good for people or deer.
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we have a metro zone here. You can hunt with bow. You have to be so far off trails/roads/etc. They also have special hunts for disabled in areas near town. I think there isn’t enough hunters and the future looks bleak. I doubt many youtube generation kids are going to take up hunting.
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You’re right, if they can’t figure out if they’re a boy or a girl…they’re not likely to be into forging for supper or shooting a deer or bear.
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7 trees (all in ground) removed so far. 4 plum, 1 sweet cherry, 2 apple. Saved all the big chunks and chipped everything thinner then a half dollar or so. Still have a couple more trees to go. Cut them all about flush with the soil line… They’ll probably sprout but i’ll just keep mowing them until the termites do their thing.
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Why did you decide to remove them?
Rob,
Would you like to post your thought on this thread. Love to hear your reasons.
I have been buying very good cherries, now over 24 lb over 2 months. Done for the year. I Am surprised about the big size and tasting.
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The drought has something to do with the taste, sweeter than normal years
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