My wife makes an amazing pear pie. Better than any Apple pie

Keith , do you ever find what as a kid we called sugar pears?
They were small green/brown only about 1/4 the size of most pears.
Mom canned then with spices , and haven't had them in over 50 years.
Never seen another tree like it either.

Ohio Wolverine, my great, great Uncle Ed, who was 106 when he died, had a sugar pear tree in his backyard in Piqua, Ohio that was several feet in diameter. His house was built in the early 1800s. I don't know how old the tree was, but it was likely very old. The tree got tens of thousands of tiny, brownish sugar pears on it. They were the best tasting, sweetest pairs I have ever eaten. The tree was very tall and wide too and the pairs would be 8" or more deep under it in places. The lower branches were so wide I could walk on them without having to hold onto anything. It was an amazing tree.

My aunt Linda, who lived in one of the two houses on the lot, disliked the tree because of allthe yellow jackets, which came for the pears.

There were massive apple trees too, bigger than almost any apple trees I have seen since.

Ed died around 1981. Shortly afterwards the property was sold and the house and probably the tree was bulldozed to build a very big house.

Keith

My dad always threw pears in the mix of apples when pressing cider. ..it was delicious

I wonder if these are the same pear.
They seemed to ripen in late summer , but don't ever remember them still on the tree as long as these.


https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/pear/what-is-a-seckel-pear-tree.htm

Once we had a water fight with my aunt, after we picked the pears. It was definitely before school started and probably late July or early August, because we were staying with our grandparents for the week.

I have some wild apple trees on my farm that usually ripen in mid-July and those apples by the pear tree were similar.

What are sold as sugar pear trees now have much larger pears with a red tinge. These pears were tiny, very pear shaped and brown. They were very sweet, almost candy like. I wish I had some clones of that tree. I suspect they would make great alcohol, especially if blended with the early apples.

Keith

Ohio Wolverine, the sugar pears were colored like a Bosc pear, but smaller and from the write ups, much sweeter. Is that how you remember them?



Keith

That's what I remember also.
Wonder if there's any pears like that any more.
They were sweet even before they were competely ripe.
I remember the leaves were smaller also.
That picture doesn't look like them. they had green and a purpleish brown like on them.
Like the picture in the link I posted , but not quite like that.
That was the only tree like it I've ever seen.

Today, I picked 22 gallons, around 2.4 bushels, of my later pears, to can. I think there is 80 to 90 gallons more of pears to pick.



How are everyone else's pears doing?

Keith

Pear butter, delicious

WS

Sounds smart. I have some planted, but they aren't doing well. Next year I need to find some good ones.The OP's picture is cool.

Thanks for the reminder. I need to check out an orchard to see if they had a productive year.

My dad was an expert with Bartlett pears (maybe the others ripen the same). He would pick them at a certain stage of green, wrap each one in news paper, put them in a brown paper sack in a dark closet.
They ripened perfectly. If you let the ripen naturally they are soft and grainy.

Diane and I went to some good friend's house tonight to can pears together. I took about 2 1/2 bushels of pears. The four of us processed a little over a bushel and a half of the pears, ending up with 41 quarts of canned pears. It was much more enjoyable to can together.



Keith

First time since moved here the pear tree was bare. Late frost nailed the blooms.

Couple brothers I grew up with made pear wine . Barrels of it !! People came from hundreds of miles to get it.

Right Keith,same here. We always slaughtered and butchered hogs and beef and chickens as a group too. Made it a good time.

Holy crap. I need to find some to order that will produce like that

They are Bartlett Pairs. I bought the 3 trees those pairs came off of at the end of season, at Rural King for I think $1.67 each. They were well over 6' high when I bought them and have had pears every year. I picked 14 in total of those 11 gallon baskets of pears.

Keith