Crop: Fondante d'Automne

I decided to pick the remaining crop of Fondante d'Automne today as half the crop had previously fallen in the wind. Usable crop weighed in at 2.5 kgs. The windfalls had actually ripened more nicely than the ones I picked, despite being dark green. I think I left the others too long, as the ones that had yellowed slightly on the tree were brown at the core, and slightly floury.

The pear lives up to it's name - very soft sweet flesh with moderate skin, little acidity or tannins. Quite rich, but not really 'buttery'. Normally I like my pears slightly under-ripe and firm, but this is one variety that is worth letting soften a little, as the sugar levels increase quite substantially.

This variety has a shape described as a 'bergamot' pear. I hadn't really stopped to think about the reasoning behind this until today, but I guess it might be because it has the nearly-round shape of the bergamot orange (sometimes described as being 'pear-like'.