Harvesting Many 'Blake's Pride' Pears

   We're now harvesting many 'Blake's Pride' European pears.  'Blake's Pride' produces large pears with a buttery, smooth texture, wonderful for fresh eating, baking and canning.  These pears keep well in the fridge for at least 6 weeks.  Take them out of the fridge 2 to 4 days before you want to eat them or cook with them, and let them sit on the counter to soften until they turn bright yellow.  We have a bumper crop of 'Blake's Pride' pears this year, and we've already picked over 250 pounds of them in the first two days of harvest.

'Blake's Pride' pears have a buttery, smooth texture & are wonderful for fresh eating, baking and canning.

   We'll start harvesting 'Shinko' Asian pears next week.  Asian pears are shaped like apples, stay crisp like apples, and never get soft.  They're very sweet and juicy, great for fresh eating like an apple, plus great in salads and stir-fry dishes.  We grow 'Shinko' Asian pear because it's the variety with the most resistance to fire blight disease, which can kill pear trees.  All our European pear varieties are resistant to fire blight disease also.

   I'm also harvesting the earliest-ripening apple varieties from my apple breeding program, and have some for sale now and for the next couple months.  I give taste samples of all apple and pear varieties available at the time you come visit us.

We have some 'Sun Gala' apples, an early-ripening variety from my apple breeding program, for sale now.

We sell #1 harvested pears and apples for $1.39 per pound + sales tax.  We sell #2 (2nds) pears and apples, with cracks or bird pecks, for $1.06 per pound + sales tax.

  Our pick-your-own apple season, and main apple season, doesn't start until the last few days of Sept., and is heaviest the whole month of October, as shown in the sidebar at left under Crop Sales Seasons.

   For the next week or so, we still have some #2 (2nds) peaches, with cracks or bird pecks, for sale for $1.06 per pound + sales tax.  The best-tasting peach variety for me is 'Intrepid', and we still have lots of #2 'Intrepid' peaches for sale now.  These are great for slicing, peeling and freezing. 

   For the next week or two, we also still have some harvested, cracked 'Kanza' pecans for sale.  These are big, beautiful pecans with thin shells and great taste.  We've now sold out of all pecans from my husband Bill's pecan breeding program on our farm, but Bill was the one who convinced the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to release 'Kanza' as a variety, and he was the one who named it.

   We sell cracked pecans in 4-pound bags, which are over 75% pecan kernels and under 25% shell fragments.  Each bag has the equivalent of 6 pounds of in-shell pecans, and when you pick out the pecan kernels, you get 3 pounds or more of nutmeats.  Each bag costs $18.52 + sales tax.

   Our Fall Open Hours run from Sept. 1 until Nov. 30, as shown in the sidebar at left.  We're open Mon. to Sat. 9 a.m.to 12 noon and 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sundays 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. only.  We're closed Sun. mornings for church services (as we are year-round), and closed from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. each day so I can take a lunch break.

   We are open these regular Fall Open Hours during all of Labor Day weekend.

   During afternoons that soar above 90 F, like today, I may take some time to work on the computer in the house, as I'm doing now to write this blog post.  If so, I put up a sign by the bell on our sales building porch, saying to phone our house (620-597-2450) for service. 

When I'm working on the computer, I put up a sign by the bell on our sales building porch, saying to phone our house for service. Fall open hours are on the sign at left.

   Early each morning, a worker and I harvest pears, and I put up a sign by the bell on our sales building porch, saying to ring the bell.  Our pear orchard is fairly close to our sales building, so I usually can hear vehicles come in the driveway and can hear the bell ring out there.  If you need to ring the bell, ring it loudly just a couple times.  (When rung softly and rhythmically, it sounds like a bird when I'm out in the pear orchard.)  But I do appreciate a call a day ahead so I can know when to expect you.  Thanks.