Harvesting a pear

Pears are the only temperate tree fruits that cannot be left on the tree to ripen. They are climacteric fruits that require harvest before the climatic rise in respiration of storage life is to be maximized.

Pears bear in 3 to 5 years after planting. If they are harvested too late, they developed off-flavors and core breakdown, postharvest-physiological disorder.

Harvesting pears at optimum maturity is important to ensure a high-quality product. What are the signs that fruit is ready to be harvested?

*The pear should be full sized
*Usually the fruit is still green but has started turning yellow, although some varieties are red or russet-colored or blushed with red or pink.
*When tilted, the fruit will easily spate form the tree with its stem still attached.
*The flesh gets whiter
*When cutting the fruit open, juice forms on the flesh
* To test ripeness, cut a fruit open; dark seeds indicate ripe fruit.

How pears should be picked? Carefully hold the stem of the pear on one hand and the fruit spur in the other hand. Gently twist with an upward turn. Remove the ear and stem, not the bumpy, fruit-bearing spur.

It takes several years for a spur to develop, and if damaged or accidentally harvested with the pear the crop will be significantly decreased the following year.
Harvesting a pear

Cactus fruit or prickly pear

The cactus fruit is a berry that is frequently juicy and eaten by humans including those of the prickly pear or tuna, cactus (Opuntia).

The prickly pear has been a notable food for desert dwellers since aboriginal times; no doubt it was important to the Aztecs; nomadic desert forebears, the Chichimecs.

Cactus fruits are readily eaten and dispersed by desert tortoises, birds, rodents, coyotes, peccaries and other animals.

About 70-80% of the fruits by dry weight is sugar, mostly fructose which is better tolerated by diabetics than glucose and sucrose.

Spanish conquerors of Mexico recognized the benefits of the prickly pear fruits, due to their vitamin C content, as a partial cure for the scurvy that plagued their sailors.

The driving force behind the prickly pear’s use and popularity is its ability to function as both food and medicine.

Historically, fruits were eaten fresh or sun-dried, pickled cooked as a vegetables in stews or cooked to derive syrups, jellies, or preserves. Fruit juice or pulp mostly from prickly pears, also used to flavor the alcoholic beverage pulque, or the juice simply was mixed with water to produce a sweet drink.
Cactus fruit or prickly pear

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

Fruit of pears

The fruit of the tree of the same name, the pear is grown in several parts of the world, particularly in regions with a temperately cool climate. With their glossy leaves and white blossoms, pear trees are a beautiful accent in a home landscape.

The pear (pyrus communis) is a delicious fruit that is related to the apple and the quince. About the size of apple, pears generally have characteristics large, round bottom that tapers toward the top.

Depending upon the variety, their paper-thin skins can be yellow, green, brown, red or a combination of two or more of these colors. There are many varieties of pears sold. Bartlett and Comice pears are soft, juicy and sweet. They are also very fragile. Bosc and D’Anjou are firmer, but still very sweet and juicy.

Generally pears do not necessarily ripen on the tree. They are picked when still greens, which picking maturity being determined by flesh firmness, color or soluble solids test as established by various regulations.

Fresh pears contain 83% water. Additionally, each 100 g (about 3.5 oz) provides 61 calories (kcal) of energy, 130 mg of potassium, and only 2 mg of sodium. The calories in pears are derived primarily from the sugars (carbohydrate) which gave pears a sweet taste.

Pears are excellence source of water-soluble fibers, including pectin. In fact, pears are actually higher in pectin than apples. This makes them quite useful in helping to lower cholesterol levels and in toning the intestines.

About 48% of the pear is sold as fresh pears for consumption as fresh fruits and for home use. The remaining 52% is processed as canned or dried fruit.
Fruit of pears