Harvesting and Storing Pears for Long-Lasting Flavour

Why Pears Refuse to Behave Like Apples

Apples are obliging things. Leave them on the tree until they come away with a twist and they are more or less ready, then store them in a cool shed and they will hold for months. Pears are a different proposition entirely, and this is the single fact that trips up most new growers: pears ripen from the inside out. The flesh around the core softens first, while the skin and the fruit just under it still feel firm and unripe. Pick a pear when it looks and feels ready to a passing glance and by the time the outside has caught up, the middle will have gone to a floury, brown mush.

The solution is counter-intuitive but reliable. Harvest pears slightly underripe, while they are still hard enough to feel like a cricket ball, then let them finish off the tree in your own hands. You are not storing pears so much as managing a slow, controlled ripening, and once you get the rhythm of it, you will be eating your own fruit from October through to January.

Reading the Signs of Readiness

Judging the moment to pick is a skill learned over a season or two, and it varies by variety. Early sorts such as Williams' Bon Chrétien and Beurré Hardy are ready from late August; Conference follows through September and into October; Doyenné du Comice and Concorde sit in the middle; and late keepers such as Josephine de Malines and Winter Nelis can hang on into November in a mild year.

Look for these signals:

• Colour shift. The ground colour — the patch of skin around the stalk — turns from a hard, grassy green to a paler, yellowish green. This matters far more than any red flush on the sunlit side, which is only cosmetic.
• The tilt test. Cup the fruit in your palm and lift it gently to a horizontal position. If the stalk parts from the spur with almost no pull, it is ready. If you have to tug, walk away and come back in three or four days.
• Skin texture. The surface loses its dull, matte finish and takes on a faint sheen. Small brown specks, the lenticels, become more pronounced.
• Falling fruit. A few sound pears dropping of their own accord, without wind or bird damage, is the clearest signal of all.

If in doubt, pick a little early rather than a little late. A slightly underripe pear will ripen perfectly indoors; an overripe one is a lost cause.

Picking and Handling Without Bruising

Pears bruise if you look at them wrongly, and every bruise becomes a rotten patch in store. Work with dry hands on a dry morning, once any dew has lifted. Never pull a pear downwards — cradle it, tilt it upwards and let the stalk separate naturally, keeping the stalk attached. A pear without its stalk is an open door for mould.

Have a lined basket or shallow trug to hand and never drop fruit in from height. Carry the basket on your arm rather than setting it down repeatedly, and take the fruit indoors promptly. Bruises do not show up immediately — a knock on Tuesday may not discolour until the following week, by which time it has spread to its neighbours.

Cedar Trays: The Grower's Secret Weapon

Here is where a little garden craft pays off handsomely. The traditional storage rack is a shallow wooden tray, and cedar is the finest timber for the job. It is naturally aromatic, resistant to rot and fungal growth, and it does not impart the tarry, resinous taint you can get from softwoods such as pine. Cedar also breathes, which is exactly what you want.

Build or buy trays roughly 60cm by 40cm, with sides about 8cm deep and slatted bases so air can move beneath. Line the base with a single layer of clean paper or dry straw, then set the pears stem upwards and not touching one another. A finger's width between fruits is plenty. Stack the trays on a slatted cedar shelf so air circulates on every side, and if you have cedar shavings from a woodworking project, scatter a thin handful between layers — the scent discourages mould and keeps the storage area smelling like a seasoned woodshed.

If you would rather not build, a clean wooden drawer or a cardboard box with ventilation holes will serve, but cedar lasts decades and looks handsome enough to leave on show in a shed or outbuilding.

The Right Conditions, and the Patience to Leave Them Alone

Pears want a cool, dark, slightly humid space: ideally between 2°C and 5°C, with humidity around 85 to 90 per cent. A garage that stays cold but frost-free, a north-facing shed, an unheated pantry or the bottom of a refrigerator all work well. Keep them away from onions, potatoes and any other strongly scented produce, and away from ripening fruit, which gives off ethylene gas and will hurry everything along.

Cold slows ripening to a crawl. That is the point. Fruit brought in during late September can be held for weeks, then moved somewhere warmer for three to seven days to finish. Comice and Concorde need this cold spell before they will soften properly at all — bring them straight into a warm kitchen and they will stubbornly stay hard.

Checking, Ripening and Enjoying the Results

Inspect your trays every few days, and do not skip this. Because ripening begins at the core, the outside is a poor guide. Instead, press gently around the neck of the fruit, just below where the stalk meets the shoulder. When that gives slightly to a soft pressure, the pear is ready to eat.

• Remove any damaged fruit immediately and use it the same day — one rotten pear will spoil a whole tray.
• Ripen in small batches. Take out only what you will eat over three or four days, so nothing goes over before you get to it.
• Bring to room temperature before eating. A pear straight from the cold tastes flat and grainy; an hour on the kitchen table transforms it.
• Cook the surplus. Firm, underripe pears poach beautifully in wine, honey or spiced syrup, and they hold their shape in chutney and in a slow-roasted traybake with cider.

Get this process right and the orchard keeps giving long after the leaves have fallen. There is quiet satisfaction in cutting a Cedar-stored Comice in January, still fragrant and buttery, when the tree outside is bare and dripping — proof that a little patience and a well-made tray are worth more than any amount of luck.