Many Pears & Asian Pears for Sale

   I've harvested lots of 'Blake's Pride' European pears over the past 10 days, so we 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.
   'Shinko' Asian pear harvest is now about 80% complete, as they've ripened fast over the past 5 days.  Asian pears are shaped like apples, stay crisp like apples, and are very juicy and sweet.  They're mostly for fresh eating.  Many people bought Asian pears last weekend, but we still have many boxes for sale now, and we'll have them until we sell out.

Today I harvested more 'Blake's Pride' European pears (in green box at right) and 'Shinko' Asian pears (in blue boxes at left), and we have many for sale. 

  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-Sept. to early Oct.
   We also have a small amount of a few early apple varieties, and some selections from my apple breeding program, which I harvest and have for sale.  I give taste samples.  Our pick-your-own apple season will start about Sept. 22 and run until about Nov. 12.  That's also our main apple season, when we'll have many harvested apples for sale.
       Small amounts of harvested pears and apples cost $1.20 per pound + tax.  A 20-lb. box of pears or apples costs $23.15 + tax, which saves $1.00 off the per-pound price.  I harvest pears and apples into two plastic bags per box, so you can get a mixed box of one bag of pears and one bag of apples, and still get the 20-lb. discount.
   We also have some harvested 2nds pears and 2nds apples, great for baking or for making pear preserves or apple butter.  Usually about 90% of the fruit is still usable, but they're 69% the cost at $0.83 per pound + tax.

More fall red raspberries ripen each day, and there are many to pick on weekdays.

   We also have some fall red raspberries now, sold pick-your-own only.  More fall red raspberries ripen each day until the first fall freeze in late Oct. or early Nov., so you can often pick a few pints of raspberries if you ask about them.  Raspberries often get picked out on Saturdays, but there are many to pick on weekdays, especially if you phone 620-597-2450 a day ahead and let me know when you're coming to pick them.  Otherwise I may pick them for my own use, since raspberries need to be picked at least every 2 days.  Pick-your-own raspberries cost $2.08 per pint + tax.

Our fall hours run from Sept. 1 through Nov. 30.

   Our fall hours, as shown in the sidebar at left, start tomorrow, on Sept. 1, and run through Nov. 30.  Please note that we open at 9 a.m. now, later than our fall hours in prior years.  This will give me time to get much-needed orchard work done before customers start arriving, and some early mornings I deliver fruit to schools.  We're now closing at 5:30 p.m., which will make it easier for me to attend Sun. evening and mid-week evening church services.  We're still open 55.5 hours per week in fall.
   We're open our regular fall hours over Labor Day weekend.
   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.