Many 'Blake's Pride' Pears & 'Shinko' Asian Pears Ripe Now

   I've harvested a lot of 'Blake's Pride' European pears over the past few days, so have many for sale now.  This pear variety gets huge, and has a fine-grained texture and a smooth, buttery taste.  They're great for fresh eating, baking, and canning.  More will ripen until about mid-Sept.

'Blake's Pride' European pears get huge, and have a fine-grained texture and a smooth, buttery taste.

   We still have many 'Luscious' European pears in our cooler also, ready to sell.  We also now have Bill's homemade pear butter for sale again, freshly made last weekend from 'Luscious' European pears, which are especially good for making pear butter.  'Harrowsweet' European pears should be ripe from mid-late Sept. to mid-Oct.
   I started harvesting 'Shinko' Asian pears a few days ago, and have several boxes for sale now.  Asian pears are shaped like apples, stay crisp like apples, and are very juicy and sweet.  They're mostly for fresh eating.  Asian pear harvest will continue through late Sept.

'Shinko' Asian pears are shaped like apples, stay crisp like apples, and are very juicy and sweet.

   We also have a very small amount of a few early apple varieties, and some selections from my apple breeding program, which I harvest and have for sale.  Our pick-your-own apple season will start about Sept. 22 and run until about Nov. 12, as shown on the ripe dates in the sidebar at left.  That's also our main apple season, when we'll have many harvested apples for sale.
   Some red raspberries are still ripening each day, but not as many as last week.  The fall red raspberry crop is much less than the June crop, and comes in waves until the first fall freeze in late Oct. or early Nov.  If you come for pears, you may pick a few pints of raspberries if you ask about them.
   We're still open our summer hours through Aug. 31: open 7:30 a.m. to 12 noon Mon.-Sat., closed from 12 noon to 7:00 p.m., and open 7 p.m. until dark each evening.  Our fall hours (see sidebar at left) will start on Sept. 1.
   I'm usually out harvesting pears, so I put a sign on the sales building post to ring the bell for service.  Ring it loudly, once or twice, and I'll hear it and drive the utility vehicle in to the sales building.