Page 17 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2023

Some years it has a rose water flavour, if caught right it can be crunchy and very sweet, if left longer, melting. One of the sweetest pears. Tends to hang on the tree longer than Conference, a much better bet in my opinion. Far more pristine than Conference although they can look similar. Season late September onwards. Highly recommended.
Pitmaston Duchess. Huge grown on QA rootstocks, a dual-purpose pear, meaning that it is classed as a dessert pear and a cooking pear, in my opinion the very best cooking pear but not a fantastic dessert pear, although you can of course cook with any dessert pear. On QA the tree can be vigorous, I have an overgrown
QA upright cordon that is well contained and manageable. Season Early October onwards.
Onward. In a good year, probably the finest pear on the planet, requires careful monitoring as they tend to be firmly attached one day and on the ground the next. 2020 and 2021 was not the case they hung on for grim death – no explanation for this; it may be that the tree is now firmly established. Flesh is melting, juicy and moderately sweet with an excellent flavour. Season, late September- early October. Highly recommended.
Doyenne du Comice. Has all the attributes
of Onward and has a prolific amount of juice, but to my mind lacks the flavour,
still takes some beating though. Season around a month, covering part of October and most of November. A must if you have a southerly aspect, panel fence or wall. The East Midlands is probably the most northerly limit for growing in the open. Two of my trees are in the form of espalier and are grown against
Clapp’s Favourite
attraction of Pierre Corneille was other than it crops every year without fail. I use
it for Competitions as it keeps for around a month and covers two competitions. The texture is firm, juicy and sweet but not quite exquisite, turns golden when ripe. Should be excellent for roasting.
Beurre Superfin. I have never had the time to do serious tastings on this variety, with me it tends to be a light cropper, fruit size
a south facing panel
fences. The fences also
allow me to provide frost
and bird protection. The
fences effectively move
the trees to the south of
England. A south facing
wall effectively moves
the trees to the continent.
Rootstocks for espaliers
can be PYC (Pyrus
Communis) or Quince A.
Skin quality appears to be better on my QA grafted tree. Wall trees take some time to get going due to the restriction on root run, flavour appears to be down.
Pierre Corneille. This is a variety I inherited from a late friend. He roamed around pear collections and was able to taste pears
at their optimum. Something most of us cannot do, BPM and Moonglow were ones he came up with. I am not sure what the
is small to medium and more importantly tends
to drop off before I get
to it, appears to have a short season of around two weeks. This year (2021) I did get to it before it dropped and more importantly got to taste
it. On the 16th of October I tried one I picked on the 26th of September which was short listed
for Hyde Hall (Autumn Fruit & Vegetable Competition) eighteen days later it was spot on. This might be telling me I could pick earlier but then again the season was probably three weeks later than usual’ a lot of apples hung on forever. The thing about growing pears is, you need a good memory and you need to check them
on a day to day basis when approaching
Onward.
In a good year, probably the finest pear on the planet
Simply Vegetables 17