Re: [gardeners] Re: Sunday in the garden [sic]

George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 25 Jun 2001 10:42:35 -0500

May be Kieffers, they have a newer variety that is "pear" shaped versus round
but it does ripen soft on the tree. David Smith might have the right idea too,
some varieties of pear are picked green and ripen off the tree, I'm not familiar
with those.

Pear butter is made with same spices and exactly like apple butter, pear sauce
is made exactly like apple butter, long slow cookdown. I use my crock pot and
will even turn it off, let it cool, and refrigerate until I get time to cook
down some more. Pear honey is one of Miz Anne's favorites. Once you find you
want to make it contact me off list and I will send you the recipe. You might
want to subscribe to the newsgroup rec.food.preserving, lots of interesting folk
doing home food preservation and there are lots of recipes for jams, jellies,
etc on many of the recipe sites like SOAR and others.

George

"Seyfried,Alice" wrote:
> 
> Oh, now that's interesting. I had no idea there was any such-type of pear.
> The fruits themselves have the shape and color of a "regular" bartlett (?)
> that you buy in the grocery store, so I just assumed that's what it was. I
> will talk with our extension office. I can't believe I may have just been
> wasting all those pears for all these years!  Would I go about making pear
> butter the same way I do apple butter? Different spices? We put up many
> pints of apple butter every year. Pear would make an interesting change for
> those Christmas baskets. And pear honey?  That's peaked my interest.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: George Shirley [mailto:gshirl@bellsouth.net]
> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 9:22 AM
> To: gardeners@globalgarden.com
> Subject: Re: [gardeners] Re: Sunday in the garden [sic]
> 
> They may be ripe Alice. I grow a Kieffer pear, it ends up round with a
> yellowish
> green skin and is hard as a rock when ripe. My folks always called them
> "those
> old canning pears." Sounds like that may be what you have. Pear trees also
> need
> regular pruning to keep them producing properly a little well-rotted animal
> manure around the base early in the spring when they bloom is also
> appreciated.
> If you wait for the fruit to fall off the tree it will almost always be
> rotted
> by the time it hits the ground. Check with your county agent about type,
> species, and pruning.
> 
> If it is a canning pear I have tons of recipes for canning pears, pear
> sauce,
> pear honey, pear butter, etc, etc.
> 
> George
> 
> "Seyfried,Alice" wrote:
> >
> > Eeek!!  No no no, please don't do that! I'm just a lurker, but I adore
> this
> > list, so I will pipe up with a question about my pear tree that I've been
> > wanting to ask for a very long time.  I have no idea what variety it is,
> as
> > it was planted before we bought our house. It is healthy however, and has
> > been kept in good shape. Every year it is totally **loaded** with pears.
> The
> > problem is that the pears never ripen. They seem to go from hard as rocks
> to
> > rotten. Now, we are not chemical people, and we're a bit lazy too, so
> we've
> > never sprayed this tree with anything. We live in central Ohio, zone 5b-6.
> > Does anyone have any suggestions for why the pears don't ripen.  We are at
> > the point that we are thinking of taking the tree out because it attracts
> > wasps and bees like crazy. I'd put up with them if we could get some
> fruit,
> > but if we can't enjoy the pears, then the wasps can't either.
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Alice - zone 5b-6
> > seyfried@oclc.org
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: George Shirley [mailto:gshirl@bellsouth.net]
> > Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2001 11:53 PM
> > To: Gardeners List
> > Subject: [gardeners] Re: Sunday in the garden [sic]
> >
> > There has been no gardeners mail for at least a week now. If volume
> doesn't
> > pick
> > up soon we will disband the list for lack of interest. Come on folks we
> know
> > you're lurking out there. Is everyone busy gardening?
> >
> > George