When To Pick & How To Ripen Pears
Today my husband and I picked a couple of bushels of pears from Jerry’s mother’s gorgeously loaded pear tree. I think they are Bartletts Kieffers. This was definitely a good year for pears! I wish so badly that I’d brought my camera to take a picture of the tree. The limbs were so heavy with fruit they just sagged to the ground under all of that weight.
We didn’t get to pick very long before the mosquitoes got too bad and we had to stop picking for the night, but there is still a ton more to harvest another day. They are still green, but pears are best picked before they ripen. To know when a pear is ready for picking, lift the pear (while still attached to the tree) to a horizontal position. If the stem easily breaks loose, then it’s ready. If the pear does not snap off easily from its branch, then leave it alone for a few more days.
Once they’ve been picked, pears need to be closely watched during the ripening stage. It is recommended that the pears are cooled for a day or two at 30*, and then allowed to finish ripening at 65*-75* for about 5 days. You can hasten this ripening by placing the pears in a paper bag with a ripe banana or apple.
You’ll know when the pear is just right for eating by gently pressing your thumb into the pear’s flesh a little below the stem. If the fruit feels soft, it’s ready. If it’s still hard, and doesn’t easily indent under slight pressure, then it needs more time to ripen.
Here is a good article I found on just this subject.
This is my first time trying to do anything with pears. I’m thinking pear preserves. Anybody have any tips about pears to share?
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You could dehydrate them and chop them up into muffins, granola and pancakes this winter….and just canning them in a syrup would be nice too (eaten with cottage cheese – yum!).
Thank you for posting this! My neighbor has 2 pear trees & 2 apple trees & they said we could have all we want. The pears are falling off the trees into the road! I’m thinking we may go pick them on Friday. Thanks!
They look like keiffers to me. To preserve them they need to be green. the ripened version won’t hold up and turn to mush.
I just can the quartered pears in a light syrup.
Fruit throughout the year for us (I currently have 360+ lbs of produce in my den ripening and waiting for me to attack this weekend – including 180 of Bartletts).
One neato tip I got last year was to use a melon ball dealie to scoop out the seed casing/part after you pull out the stringy parts. Works like a charm, even if you’re improvising and using your little round measuring teaspoon. Also works great for getting extra stringy stuff out, too. Looks much neater/nicer with halves or quarters in the jar than if you’d attacked with a knife.
My mom dehydrates pears just to put in pie. It’s quite good.
We make “pear sauce”. Just like apple sauce, but with pears. I have 3 little girls, and they love it!
We have two Bartlett pear trees, but they are later-ripening, autumn ones. They are usually ready to pick late September or early October. Thanks for the information! Last year we got busy and waited just slightly late to pick and we did end up with many of them having a gritty texture.
“Summer and autumn pears are gathered before they are fully ripe, while they are still green, but snap off when lifted. If left to ripen and turn yellow on the tree, the sugars will turn to starch crystals and the pear will have a gritty texture inside.”
P.S.–Pear butter is really good. I haven’t made any myself yet, but hope to make and can some this year.
Angie,
You know, you may be right. They do look more like Keiffers, now that you mention it.
Pear honey. Brandied Pears. My Mother always shreaded them (grated), froze them or used them freshly shreaded to make shreaded pear pie. Works with apples too. Really good.
I have made 48 half pints of pear honey this year, it does take a lot of sugar but it makes a very nice spread much the color and tast of honey. It is 8 cups of finely chopped pears, 10 cups of sugar, sorry i know a lot of sugar, 2 tbs lemon juice and on large can of crushed pineapple, I use the kind in juice not heavy syrup. Bring it to a boil and melt all of the sugar then turn down and cook for 45 min. to a hour. I had to cook mine a little longer to thicken up enough. You want the pears to be translucent they kind of melt away. The fill jars and process for 15 minutes. I like to use a potato masher to make sure it is all broken up. It tastes sooooo good on a hot biscuit. I will be using these for Christmas gifts. One batch makes about 12 half pints.
Thanks for the recipe, Leslie! Do you use really ripe pears, or are they slightly green at all??
Kendra the first batch I made was with slightly green pears, I just had to cook it longer to get it translucent. It also helps if you cut them in the food processor, to cut down on the cooking time. I would use my potatoe masher to help break up the pears when they are cooking and to see when the mixture is cooked down enough. I keep a spoon in ice water and dip out some of the mixture when it gets as thick as I like I pack it and hot water bath it.
kendra, I just tried a new recipe it is in the water bath as I type and I really like the taste now, I’m sure it will be even better once it sits in the jars for a couple of weeks, it is for pear relish. If you like chow chow with your beans and greens you will like this stuff. I got this recipe from a little old lady.
one peck of pears, 5 large onions, 5 green bell peppers, 5 red bell peppers, 3 hot peppers or more if you like hotter, 1 tbsp salt, 5 cups vinegar, 5 cups sugar, I cut everything up in the food processor then put everything in a kettle and bring to a boil turn down and simmer for about 30 minutes, then pack jars and proccess in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. This stuff is so pretty in a jar it looks like confetti, very festive.
Thanks Leslie!!
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