Harvesting and Ripening Pears

One of my favorite fall activities is going to my brother’s to harvest pears from his trees.  We harvest all pears on the trees.  If the pears are not ripe then we take steps to ripen them in a cool area in our basement or fruit cellar.

We gather bushels of mature pears and put them in cardboard boxes or large brown bags. Then we will ripen the pears by storing them in a dark cool section of our basement. This area should be 60 to 70 degrees for best results.

Check on the pears every few days, they should be ripe and ready for cooking in a few weeks. You can also put the pears in a brown bag and put the bag in the refrigerator. This method of ripening will take approximately ten days for the pears to be ready.