Seasonal eating - conference pears?

Loadsabob

Hello everyone, I'm just intreigued...

Have been buying conference pears from Stokes for the last few weeks, because I saw them labelled as "English" and thought it was a good balance for the food miles of my pineapple.

However, thinking about it...how are there English pears in the shops??? Are there pear trees in polytunnels? Am I being tricked, do you suppose, and really they're Argentinian?...

I think I'll write to Stokes too, but my pear tree has only now got blossom on...

Debt_Free_Chick

They are pears that were picked in the autumn and stored.

Same is true of apples, potatoes and many root vegetables like carrots, beetroot etc.

HTH

thriftlady_2

Yep, they're stored.English pear trees have blossom on now not pears;) I buy English apples (locally grown) from late August until March when they definitely deteriorate in taste and texture.

Some varieties of apples and pears store better than others which is why the season is so long.I don't think English pears will be up to much 6 months after picking.Apples and pears from the southern hemisphere like N.Z or S.A will be better if you can stand the food miles.

Personally I'm happy to buy things like pineapples from far away simply because we can't grow them here.I'd rather not buy apples in the Summer at all but OH and kids would object.Good news is the first English strawberries are in the shops along with lovely English rhubarb.:)

Loadsabob

Ah,

I received a very quick email back from Stokes, who said that on this occasion there had been a mistake - they are stocking pears from Belgium at the moment. I was impressed by the speed of the reply, and by the honesty in admitting a mistake (which he said had been rectified, as he'd called the store's manager).

Possibly still stored though, as I can't imagine Belgium beats us too much with the Autumn fruit harvest!

Nice pears though, fairly tasty and juicy...ho hum. I didn't think pears would keep in the same way as other veg that gets stored!

I couldn't justify many food miles for apples and pears, when we can get English in season (I'm so fed up seeing American apples in the shops when I know English coxes are still around) - perhaps Belgium not SO bad! But I agree on things like pineapple though, I'd save my food miles for those things, which are "exotic" to us.

Thank you for your responses DFC and Thriftlady!

Oh, yes about the rhubarb, but I'm lucky to get mine from the back garden, yay! And looking forward to my alpine strawberries again this year, the first flowers are out and proud!