This is a great time of year for picking pears and apples! YUMMY recipes will be filling the house with the delicious scents of approaching fall. From canned pear slices, pear sauce (like applesauce), pear honey, pear desserts and just eating them we go through lots this time of year. Read on for the secret of how to know your pears are ready to pick!

Our two beautiful pear trees produced fairly well this year and I am excited to see how much we are able to harvest!

Did you know that pears ripen from the inside out? If you are patiently waiting for your pears to fully ripen on the tree, you will be saddened to learn they will most likely be rotten in the middle.

Determining by color or appearance isn’t effective and it would be wasteful to go out every day and pick one to take a bite out of just to see if they are ready.

So, how DO  you know your pears are ready to pick?!

Easy, take your pear and gently pull it horizontally and up. Not down like an apple. If the pear releases from the tree easily, it is ready! Yes, it’s THAT simple!

Here is a video showing exactly how to tell if your pears are ready to pick:

Now that you know your pears are ready to pick, what do you do since they are not fully ripened? You can either eat them just like they are (although they are crunchier than normal) or you can let them sit at room temperature for about a week to fully ripen.

Placing the pears in a paper bag with a banana or apple will also speed up the ripening process, however this can negatively affect the texture of the pear.

If, in contrast, you wont have enough time to put up your pears and don’t want them all to ripen at the same time, placing them in the refrigerator will slow down the process.

Enjoy!

-Melissa