Winter pears

[Andrew Lea]

Dries Muylaert wrote:
> Mel wrote:
>> She grafts her
>>> pears, very sucessfully. (anyone know any good really late dessert pears ?)
>>
>> Some ideas
>> can be held in cold to:
>>
>> november: doyenne du comice
>> december: jean d'arc, jules d'airoles
>> januari: bronzee d'enghien
>> februari: josephine de malines

I agree with Josephine de Malines. She is a shy cropper, with droopy
growth but excellent late winter eating. I have just harvested mine and
they are hard as bullets. I will leave them as cold as I can (even in
the fridge) till well after Christmas and then savour every one!

Andrew

[Dries Muylaert]

Beautifull day over here.

You can go to -1 celcius, but not deeper. Cold storage will keep them
2-3 months, fridge can keep them up to 5 months. Keep them in plastic
foil. Tree needs lots of cleaning out if you want an acceptable fruit
size. Not an easy tree. Scab is a problem. Frost not. They hang very
strong, so you can keep them long on the tree. To the great delight of
various bird species. Nets might be necessary.

[Stephen Hayes]

Winter Nelis is also good, we have this on an espalier, also Josephine de
Malines another quite good keeper.


Stephen

[David Llewellyn]

I have Glou Morceau, keeps til well into new year in fridge, then when
removed to ripen they are very sweet and juicy, but don't have the rich
flavour of a Williams or Comice. Anyone else know this one? Is Josephine
really good for flavour?

David L.

[Andrew Lea]

David Llewellyn wrote:
>
> Is Josephine
> really good for flavour?

Well i think so but it's my wife's name (which is why we planted it) so
I could be biased! I note from Hogg that the Belgian gentleman who
raised it in the 1830's named it after his wife also! It has an RHS
'Award of Garden Merit' on the 2008 list.

Andrew

--
Wittenham Hill Cider Page
http://www.cider.org.uk

[Stephen Hayes]

Santa Claus is another good winter pear, the leaves go a beatiful deep red
colour in autumn.

Stephen


----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Hayes" <haye...@btinternet.com>
To: <cider-w...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Sunday, November 08, 2009 9:36 PM
Subject: [Cider Workshop] Re: Winter pears


>

[michael]

I think that cooking pears fall into the heading of winter pears.I
have grown the pear Bellissime d'hiver on my allotment in S.Manchester
for 20 years,and I would recommend it highly.The fruit is large and
ripens at the end of October/early November here.The cropping is
annual and heavy,and growing on QC stock,provides enough pears for my
family and friends for the whole of winter.The fruit is very hard and
stores until March/April;by then or earlier we put some in the freezer
to keep us going into the summer.The pears are of high quality,and
without the grittiness of the cooking pear Catillac.They are
magnificent cooked in wine,and even better when cooked in cider.
Michael

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>
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