This past week, I got to try my first pear variety of the season – the Moonglow pear. I purchased them from the Saline Farmer’s Market. The vendor said he has to pick these pears earlier than he wanted because they were being blown off the trees. Fortunately with pears they do not need to ripen on the tree to be good. In fact when you let a pear ripen completely the tree, since it ripens from the inside out, the inside is so soft it’s almost rotten at that point. Your best bet is to place them in a paper bag when you buy them and then check on them each day until they are perfect, soft, but without spots starting to rot.
The Moonglow pear was developed in Beltsville, Maryland and introduced in 1960. It is ready for picking about mid-August making it an early variety. The pear can develop a red blush if it’s on the tree long enough (mine didn’t have any blush on them). These pears do not have a long shelf life so you probably won’t find them in any supermarket. Farmers still like for local sales as this variety is one of the most resistance to diseases.
My Experience with this Pear (Rating Scale 1-10)
Texture: 7
Pear Flavor: 8
Sweetness: 5
Juiciness: 6
Overall Feeling: This wasn’t a bad pear for the first of the season. It was slightly above average when it comes to juiciness. But it’s the fragrant, strong flavor that makes this pear. It has a classic pear flavor in abundance. It has a good texture, not too grainy. My wife doesn’t the majority of pears due to their grainy texture, she thinks it’s like eating sand. But this particular pear she did not mind at all – a big win!. The downfall of this particular pear as that it goes from being perfect to being rotten very quickly.
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