Pears are deep-rooted members of the Rose family, cousins to Apples, Plums, and Peaches. The family resemblance really blossoms in the white five-petaled flowers. Pears grow native to the coasts and mild temperate zones of Northern Africa, Europe, and Asia, originally stemming from the Tian Shan mountains in Western China. Pears have been cultivated in China, Korea, and Japan for 4,000 years, and in Europe for at least a thousand, where all cultivars were first propagated from two wild forest species, foraged long before cultivated. We’re glad these ancient pomologists passed down their knowledge!

The word pear comes from German, borrowed from Latin, by way of a Greek word with Semitic origins that means, simply, fruit. Nothing wrong with clear language! Pear is a common word across Celtic languages, with close-enough versions in Slavic ones, which means it’s a tree with a long well-known history. Greek and Roman agricultural texts often detailed grafting tips, and the Romans first brought it north when invading Britain, where the place-name Perry implies a long tradition of pressing the fruit and fermenting the juice into perry, the Pear version of cider.

Pears are a renowned orchard tree for their nutritious fruit, high in fiber, vitamins (A, B, and C), and minerals like potassium, iron, magnesium, and calcium. The fruit’s cooling energy helps with inflammation; decoctions made from the bark serve as an analgesic (or pain-reliever) for bruises and sprains. Asian Pears tend to look a little more like Apples with a similar crunchy texture good for baking and jam-making. In many Asian culinary traditions, ground pears fuse with vinegar and soy sauces to make sweeteners, and their enzymes tenderize proteins in meat. They’re grown as a tree cash crop in the Middle Hills of Nepal. Pearwood has long been used for musical instruments, a sweet-smelling firewood to smoke meats and tobacco, and cutlery and cutting boards because it doesn’t impart food with its own flavor, odor, or color and resist warping when wet. Ancient Greeks used the wood to make idols of the goddess Hera. For the Vainakh people in Chechyna, Pears and Walnuts are holy trees housing friendly spirits, which means they can’t be cut down. In some old European traditions, Apples were planted at the birth of boys and Pears were planted at the birth of girls, though we don’t think the tree will mind if planted for anyone.

We currently grow and offer seedlings saved from Kieffer, a hybrid of Sand Pear (also known as Asian Pear, Pyrus pyrifolia) and Bartlett (Pyrus communis ‘Williams’), the most common European cultivar. Supposedly the hybridization was an accident at Peter Kieffer’s nursery outside of Philadelphia in the 1870s, but that unintended consequence produced an amazingly versatile resilient fruit tree! Kieffers are fast growing in full sun, best with roots in slightly acidic well-drained soil. Smooth young bark checkers with maturity, and glossy green leaves bronze in the Fall. These Pears tolerate heat, drought, flooding, and are immune to fireblight, a highly infectious bacterial disease common in humid climates. And yet Kieffer Pears reliably produce large golden-yellow bell-shaped fruit, crisp and juicy white and excellent for canning and cooking. We heard several fruit experts recommend planting as many Kieffers as possible, and we see no good reason not to take them seriously!

From September through October, we make the rounds to several neighborhood Kieffer trees, remnants of old farm orchards now on city streets and lots. We press juice for delicious wild-fermented perry (which could then be distilled into brandy), simmer whole fruit down into sauce, and dry trays full for Winter snacks. The mild flavor gets stronger when dehydrated! We feed old drops to a very grateful herd of goats. At some point we’ll take Pliny the Elder up on his recommendation to stew them with honey.

We propagate our Pears from seed saved from tall resilient dependable trees. After pressing for juice we rake the pomace into nursery beds. Since they’re from seed, these trees might vary quite a bit from their parent!