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Hood River News Editorial
September 16, 2006
It’s here and you can taste it.
Pear season, that is.
The time to find local pears is now, and the place to buy them is
virtually around the corner or down the road.
Growers are looking ahead to the Oct. 21-22 Harvest Festival, and the
chance to celebrate Oregon’s newly designated Official State Fruit,
the pear (pyrus communis), which will appear in all its juicy glory
for a celebration on its home turf in Hood River.
But this very weekend, Pear Celebration brings out the bounty for its
annual “debut.” Eighteen different varieties are to be found at fruit
stands all up and down the Hood River Valley, a circuit known as The
Fruit Loop. If you have the chance this weekend, seek out the red,
green and gold treasures our trees produce.
Two things to remember about a pear’s degree of ripeness. First “
check the neck” rather than squeezing the middle of the pear. The neck
will give slightly if the pear is ripe or nearly so.
If the fruit is firmer, place it in a paper bag and seal a banana
inside to enhance the ripening; within two to five days, they will be
ready.
The pears, be they Comice, Anjou, Bartlett or other variety, contain
flavors worth waiting for.
The harvest is upon us: enjoy the sweet splendor that is so close to
home. |
