|
Pears were not part of our diet when I was a child. Matter of fact I can only remember once when my father brought home a brown paper bag full of pears as a gift for us kids. They were small brownish green pears. I don’t remember what they were called. Perhaps, Seckel or something similar.
Fall is here now and the markets abound with fall fruit and especially all types of pears. It is believed that pears were used as food by Stone Age people. The ancestor of today’s popular pear varieties are from regions in southeastern Europe and western Asia.
The first pear tree was planted in America in 1620. In the early 1700’s, pears were nicknamed "butter fruit" because of their soft, melting texture.
Pears are one of the world's oldest cultivated and beloved fruits. In 5,000 B.C., Feng Li, a Chinese diplomat, abandoned his responsibilities when he became consumed by grafting peaches, almonds, persimmons, pears and apples as a commercial venture. In The Odyssey, the Greek poet laureate Homer lauds pears as a "gift of the gods." Pomona, goddess of fruit, was a cherished member of the Roman Pantheon and Roman farmers documented extensive pear growing and grafting techniques. Thanks to their versatility and long storage life, pears were a valuable and much-desired commodity among the trading routes of the ancient world. Evident in the works of Renaissance Masters, pears have long been an elegant still-life muse for artists. In the 17th century a great flourishing of modern pear variety cultivation began taking place in Europe. And in popular culture, the pear tree was immortalized alongside a partridge in the 18th-century Christmas carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas.
The earliest reference to the use of pears for making a fermented drink was by Pliny who said that the Falernian variety, being very juicy, was used for making wine. Palladius, in the 4th century, wrote of pears being used like apples to make both a drink and a sauce and said that the Romans preferred wine made from pears to that from apples. He also gave instruction on how to make perry, and then called Castomoniale.
Early colonists brought the first pear trees to America's eastern settlements where they thrived until crop blights proved too severe to sustain widespread cultivation. Fortunately, the pear trees brought west to Oregon and Washington by pioneers in the 1800's thrived in the unique agricultural conditions found in the Pacific Northwest. Today's Northwest pear varieties are the same or similar to those first cultivated in France and Belgium where they were prized for their delicate flavor, buttery texture, and long storage life.
Basically, pears are available 12 months of the year. Pear season peaks from August through December with each variety having its own peak season.
The variety of pears is many. Matter of fact there are more than 3,000 varieties of pears, but the Bartlett pear is the most popular. Anjou, Bosc, Comice and Asian pears are a few of the other varieties you’ll see in the stores. They come in different shapes, colors and flavors and are sweet and juicy.
Today pears are available all year round. A surprising fact is that pears are a member of the rose family. More than 95% of the pears sold in the United States are grown in Washington, Oregon and Northern California. As more sophisticated irrigation and growing techniques developed during the past century, pear orchards flourished dramatically in the Northwest's river valley regions located in a serpentine sprawl from Northern Central Washington to Central Southern Oregon.
Today, pear orchards in Oregon and Washington are as specialized as the regions that support them. Organic, commercial and multi-generation family orchards all contribute high-quality fruit to the Northwest's fresh pear industry. Consumer interest and enjoyment of Northwest pears grows each year. Thanks to advancements in Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage technology, fresh USA Pears are available to consumers nearly year-round.
I remember a driving trip Carl and I took in that area 2 years ago. We went into Yakima Valley. The plentiful water and light, fertile soil of the agricultural-rich Yakima Valley supports thousands of acres of NW Pear trees. The growing regions in Washington share their volcanic influences from Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier. It is an amazing place.
Pears are a great source of vitamin C and fiber. In fact, one medium pear has 10% of the vitamin C our bodies need every day for good health. Just one medium pear has 16% of the fiber our bodies need every day for good health. Like other fruits and vegetables, pears are low in calories and have no fat, cholesterol, or sodium. These should be popular food for your diet.
When pears are perfectly ripe—not too soft and not too firm, they are the most delicious of fruits. The juice from a pear is thick and sweet and can be diluted with apple juice. They are high in thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folic acid which help establish a healthy cardiovascular system. They are also a good source of vitamin C, calcium, potassium, phosphorus and minerals. Levulose is the fruit sugar in pears which is easily tolerated by diabetics and as a diabetic; these are one of the fruits I can enjoy all year round.
Pears are higher in pectin than apples, which encourage regularity. Common varieties are Bartlett, Bosc, Anjou and Comice. The sweetest and juiciest are the Bartletts with their bright yellow skin. Bartletts are available from summer to fall. Look for slightly soft flesh around the stem area.
Our late son, Fred and I planted some dwarf pear trees here at Home Farm in 1999 and we just had our first big harvest from one of those trees this year. Pear trees can live 100 years, but they are usually replaced in the orchards after 30 or 40 years. This allows them to produce the most and the best tasting fruit each year.
In early spring, pear trees are pollinated by flowers from another kind of pear tree. Many times, bee hives are placed in orchards to increase pollination. The pear trees normally bloom a bit earlier in the spring than apple trees do.
Once pear trees are planted, it takes from 5 to 7 years to eat the first piece of fruit, so if you are thinking about planting pear trees, get cracking! I can think of nothing more rewarding than planting fruit trees. What a great gift to leave on this planet for the next guy.
Pear trees need rest during winter months so they can flower and fruit properly. When they are resting, the trees are pruned and prepared for the next growing period.
For growth, pear trees need rich volcanic soil and plenty of water. During the growing season, pear orchards also need warm days and cool nights.
Pears ripen better off the tree and from the inside out. One can ripen pears in a brown paper bag at room temperature. When I buy pears, I keep them in the fruit and vegetable bin in my refrigerator and then take out one or two and let them ripen in the fruit bowl until they are the consistency that I like.
As I said before, Bartlett pears are the most popular pear and they are used for dried pear products and canning. 60% of all the Bartlett pears sold in the United States come from California.
We watch our trees and pick when we think it is time. However, like everything else, harvesting pears is a science. Different varieties of pears ripen at different times of the year. But most pears are harvested from August through December.
Before harvesting pears, the sugar level, firmness and skin color are tested. Since pears do not ripen on the tree, they are picked when they are still green in color. When pears are ready for harvest, they are picked by hand, and gently placed in special bins to help avoid bruising.
From the field, pears are transported to a cold storage facility, where the fruit is cooled to slow down the ripening process. It can take three to five weeks for some pears to reach the right temperature. After pears are cooled down, they are sorted by size and graded. During this process, pears are transported in water so they don’t get bruised.
Next, at the processing plant, pears are hand-packed into boxes by carefully placing the fruit into plastic lined cartons. The boxes of pears are then stacked onto pallets and stored in a cold storage facility until they are shipped to your local market.
You can't depend on a color to tell you when a pear is ripe. Bartlett's will turn from green to yellow. Some red varieties turn from dark red to bright red, but others remain dark red. Winter pears: Anjou, Bosc, Comice and others, change very little from their un-ripened color, or not at all. D'Anjou pears do not turn yellow when ripe. Instead, their color will turn from a dark green to a lighter shade of green. Better to depend on the easy thumb-test, and know you are right!
Remember that pears ripen from the inside out, so the exterior may be a bit firm, though they are actually soft on the inside. Before eating pears, check to see if they’re ripe using the thumb test. All you need to do is gently press your thumb near the stem end of the fruit. If it is slightly soft, then you know it’s ripe! Now just wash your pear in cold water and it’s ready to eat
I personally like to slice a pear in half or quarter into bite-size pieces to remove the core and seeds. Then I am ready to enjoy juicy and sweet-tasting pears!-
Asian Pears are a fruit I have developed a fondness for over the years. I never tried one until 1988. Once reserved as a food to be served only to the wealthy and to Chinese nobles, Asian pears have been grown, cultivated, and eaten for centuries. Little is known about their origin... it's estimated that they began appearing at least 3,000 years ago in China.
Some varieties spread westward, and those ended up looking and tasting more like the pears with which most people are familiar. The varieties that spread eastward, however, took on more of an apple-like shape and a crisper quality, and those became the Asian pears we know today. They were first introduced to Americans on the West Coast by Chinese migrant workers during the 1850s. Even today, this region - California and Oregon, in particular - remains the largest Asian pear producing region of our country. At first, trees were grown from seeds found in the fruit, and their quality was widely varied. It wasn't until the early 1900s, when pomologists began mastering crossing techniques, that reliable; high-quality Asian pears were grown in the U.S. In the 1980s, there was a sudden increase in demand for Asian pears brought on by the increasing population of immigrant Americans in the U.S. and Canada.
Asian pears are also known as apple pears, Chinese or Japanese pears, Oriental pears, or Nashi (Japanese word for "pear") pears. Marino Lookout Farm is one of the only Asian pear growers on the East Coast.
Asian pears are a great source of dietary fiber, and they're also very high in potassium and other essential minerals. They contain nearly 10% of the USRDA for Vitamin C, and a high concentration of folates, which make up the Vitamin B complex group. These vitamins are essential for metabolic activity and red blood cell production.
|
Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 Resources: Excerpted from “Food For Thought Series” by Arlene Wright-Correll
For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/ and click on Arlene’s Books you can download or buy my gardening & cook books. All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and we thank you for your attention to this site.
Didn't really find what you were looking for?
|
|
|
| |
|
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](images/rss.gif "Subscribe to our XML Feed for RSS")
(Read 500+ times)
