History of pears

Pears (pyrus communis, Rosaceae) have been cultivated for thousands of years. The fruit originated in prehistoric times as a fruit crop. Native to Middle East, pears toady also grow world across of Europe and Asia. They do not seem to have been known to the ancient Greeks or Egyptians, but were to the Romans, who spread pear cultivation throughout their empire.

The Romans ate pears,  both raw and cooked. The less exquisite fruits were made into perry, or into pear vinegar, for which Pliny, Varro, Columella and other Roman authors on such subjects all had their own recipes.

The Byzantines feasted on pears in jelly, pear preserves, pears cooked in wine or in oxymel (a syrup of vinegar and honey).

It was in the seventeenth century that the European pear became much more widely distributed.

English and French settlers took the pear to East Coats America and Canada. Probably, the Spanish took pears to South America. In North America it has emerged as the most widely grown and a pear much used in canning.

Dutch traders introduced operas to South Africa, and British explorers took pears to Australia and New Zealand in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In these centuries, as in Europe the pear became a garden orchard and market fruit, and also an export fruit shipped around the globe.

Second only to apples in world production of deciduous tree fruits; pears are consumed fresh, cooked, dried or as preserves. In Europe some are used for making perry or pear wine.
History of pears