Early September fruit garden updates

More Asian pears to harvest, lessons on growing grapes, and adventures with a culinary pear

More of my Asian Pears are ready for harvest.

Yoinashi Asian Pear

It was a good year for Yoinashi Asian Pears. They aren’t the earliest Asian pear, but they have more consistently good-textured pears than the earliest variety in my garden (Hamese). They are a top pick for home orchards, as they are more disease resistant than other varieties. Not that Asian pears are terribly prone to disease - they aren’t - but disease resistance is a bonus.

Next up is Mishirasu Asian pear. These set a very good crop this year, and a sizable one at that. Word is that larger Asian pears like to crack - so far I haven’t seen that happen with this variety.

This enormous Mishirasu Asian Pear weighs 1.4#. There were several this size on the tree.

Even after thinning this tree heavily, I was worried some of the branches might break from the weight of these super heavy pears. The branches aren’t terribly thick. I decided to prop some of the branches up with boards to be sure. Worked out great.

The flavor of Mishirasu is good, but it can go overly soft quickly. If you like novelty Asian pears this would be a good pick to grow, but isn’t tops for flavor. Word is that it does last quite a while in cold storage though I haven’t tried.

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My Swenson Red grapes were a bummer this year, yield was very low. I saw the blooms - they were prolific - but for some reason they did not set well.

Even after heavy pruning, the vine on this Swenson Grape grew enormous, but very few fruits.

I took a pruning class in the winter to learn how to prune appropriately. I spur pruned this vine down to two bud spurs as instructed. But, as you can see, I did not shape this vine into the normal double wire system with two cordons. Rather, I am growing it up a tall cattle panel that I curved in half to act as a trellis, and it isn’t set up for two horizontal cordons.

Some months after I pruned the grape, I wrote an article for the Home Orchard Education Center about the best varieties of grapes to grow in this region. The research was based on OSU and WSU extension articles and experience from staff at the orchard. You can read this article here.

In my research I learned that Swenson Red should be pruned to 5 bud spurs, which is quite different than the two bud spurs. I’m not sure if that had anything to do with the poor fruit set. I’ve been trying to find where I read that advice - I’m pretty sure it was through OSU’s page on the topic, but something must have changed as the area on the table where I found that info is now blank.

Also of note: the OSU site says that heavy fog may interfere with fruit set. And in Ron Lombough’s literature on the topic, he mentions that heavy dew or fog can definitely interfere with fruit set, and it is best to make the cordons high off the ground, at least 4-5 feet.

Indeed, the only grapes that set for me were five feet off the ground, if not higher to about seven feet off the ground on this vine. And even then, the clusters were not very full.

The best of the clusters of Swenson Grapes for the 2024 year. I only got about 8 or so clusters in total.

Last year, the fruit set was quite heavy. My suspicion for what happened this year is that there was less wind available for pollination, combined with heavy dew? My property is surrounded by forest and I usually have fairly low wind. It is very uncommon for me to hear my wind chimes. Perhaps the set will be better next year, and maybe it is actually a good thing that the trellis I put these on is so high off the ground, to help with airflow. We’ll see next year.

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Notes on the European pear Bon Chretien d'Ete: this is not a pear that I grow in my orchard, but is one that is grown at the Home Orchard Education Center.

I was given some of these by the Orchard. We orchard volunteers get access to fruit when we work enough hours.

I was told that I may not like this one all that much, as it is pretty astringent. However, I had read recently that in Europe astringent pears are used as cooking pears, so I decided to try it out.

The taste experience of this pear raw was indeed an unpleasant one. It is sweet but astringent, and the texture is crisp-mealy. Not pleasant at all. It is hard to tell when they are ripe, as they don’t soften. They do turn yellow though, and if they go too long they’ll just start to rot. The rotting one indicated the rest of the pears were as ready to use as they’d ever be.

The recipe I decided to try was in the recent Joy of Cooking. Pear Pandowdy. I haven’t made one of these before, and I got confused on how to treat the crust so the result isn’t pretty.

Pear Pandowdy made with Bon Chretien d’Ete pears.

But the taste: phenomenal. The pears soften but hold their shape, and the pear makes a kind of velvety soft sauce. I’d go so far as to say it is better than apple pie.

I also tried out pancakes made with one finely chopped pear. I did not bother peeling it.

Pear Pancakes

The result was great. I like to eat them as is, no need for syrup or anything. My 13 year old somewhat picky daughter liked them that way too.

My pear recipe is based on the old Joy of Cooking, but I add up to six eggs. 1 & 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 3/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1 & 1/2 cup milk and up to six eggs. Good way to use up backyard chicken eggs when they are plentiful, and get some eggs into my daughter who won’t eat them otherwise.

The moral of this story is that if you find yourself in possession of pears that don’t taste very good raw, try cooking with them!

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