Nutritional value

Vitamin C and B6, potassium and copper.

Storage

Allow to ripen at room temperature. When ripe there will be a little give in the stalk end, then pop then in the fridge where they will keep for for a day or two. If thats too much of a faff, ripen a few days at room temperature.

Season

September

Choose

Slightly under ripe, none bruised.

Uses

Puree, poach, raw.

Recipe

Pear, cucumber, caraway and honey salad

Links

English Apples and Pears - www.englishapplesandpears.co.uk

A nice, juicy pear

Pyrus communis

Part of the Rosaceae family, which includes apples, roses, plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, raspberries, strawberries and almonds.

Thought to have originated some 4000 years ago in the Caucasus region they spread to Europe. The pear was much more popular in Ancient times than the apple and by 300 BC new cultivars were created in Greece using grafting and cross-pollination.

In England pear trees were used to mark boundaries, as mentioned in The Domesday Book of 1086. Throughout the 18th century French and Belgium breeders working on widening and improving varieties, by the late 19th century varieties had risen to over 700.

Apples and pears are a type of pome - "a false fruit in which the five carpels (the true fruit) form a core containing the seeds".

The granular texture of pears is caused by groups of sclereids embedded in the parenchyma tissue of the flesh.

We sell Commice (soft texture) and Conference (slightly granular).