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Nature's Gift for Fall: Pears

© Renie Burghardt

In early spring, it delights me, as well as the bees with masses of fragrant white blossoms; in the summer, morning doves raise their young within its shiny leaved branches, and in the fall, it keeps me busy harvesting its fruit-my pear tree, one of nature's gifts for fall.

This year, my pear tree is so loaded with fruit, that neither the deer, nor I will have a difficult time reaching much of the prize! Besides the deer, friends, relatives, (except my daughter, who has a pear tree of her own) neighbors, strangers, and lots of insects and birds usually share in the harvest, too. (Yellow jackets get positively drunk from the high concentrations of fructose and sorbital in pears!) Even so, many of the pears go un-harvested despite my ambitious plans to use most of them.

The pear, thousands of years old, a relative of the rose, originated in eastern Asia or China, and it still grows wild in Central and Southwest Asia today. However, the wild pear is small, gritty, hard, sour, and barely edible. The European pear is a descendant of this Asian wild pear, but has been much improved by cross-pollination, of course. It made its way from South West Asia into Europe, and was highly regarded for both wine making and as a fresh fruit. Pears were brought to North America from Europe over 350 years ago.

Pears, like their relative the apple, store well. However, pears, unlike apples, have to ripen in storage. But once it has softened some, the sweet, juicy, buttery flesh of a pear can't be beat. A ripe pear is still firm, but gives a little when pressed gently, has taken on the color of its variety, has a smooth skin, and is free of surface markings. Once ripe, pears have to be refrigerated. A rinsing under cold water is all you have to do to a pear, before eating, pears need no peeling, unless you will be canning them.

A medium pear has about 100 calories, and is a great source of fiber, Vitamin C, potassium and folacin. Like apple seeds, pear seeds contain cyanogenic glucosides and can be toxic in large quantities. And pear bark, just like apple bark, contains the same antibiotic-like substance called phloretin, which has been used in folk medicine in the past. My tree is a Bartlett pear, which is the most common and popular pear grown around the world. Bosc, Anjou, Flemish Beauty, and Clapp's Favorite are also popular, and these days, the Asian pear, a cold hardy native to northern China and Siberia, and more apple-like than other pears, is gaining in popularity.