Asian Pears

A Short History

All pears have a common ancestry from western China. Some pears were carried westward and changed their shape and taste into fruit like the Bartlett pear. Other pears traveled eastward to Korea and Japan. These became more like an apple in shape and crisp in texture. For centuries these pears were reserved for the nobility and wealthy in Asia. Now, in modern times, Asian pears are the most popular fruit in Asia. Here in America, this special fruit has grown in popularity. Most people have a "WOW! This is great !" reaction with the first taste of a tree ripened Asian pear.

Texture and Flavor

There are thousands of Asian Pear varieties, each with it's own unique combination of crisp juicy texture and flavor. With this unique texture and refreshing taste, these pears will satisfy the most demanding of fruit lovers and especially your children. Add to this the fact that Asian pears keep in the refrigerator ready to eat for a month or more and you will agree that this is a unique and delicious fruit.

Asian Pears Today in North America

Asian pears were introduced into California by the Chinese laborers around 1850. The trees were grown from seed and their quality varied widely. Since the early 1900's there have been named varieties imported from China, Japan, and Korea. Additionally, there have been university programs and a few private breeders developing new varieties here in the USA. Most of the university programs have been discontinued for economic reasons to fund a long term development program. The time to develop a new variety may take ten to fifteen years! Each successful new variety results from many years of working and of testing hundreds of seedling trees.

Virginia Gold Orchard has a program for the development of better tasting varieties more suited for our climate and with natural disease resistance. This program was started in 1991 and continues today. Virginia Gold Orchard has developed several new varieties. This has been a special horticultural project by Mrs. Estabrook for pears that will perform better in our Virginia climate and soils. The result of many years of careful development, testing and trials has given us two new varieties available for general sales. After introduction of these two varieties in 2008, there was an immediate waiting list for some of the 2009 crop.

"Sweet-N-Sour" is a high flavor pear that brings out the sweet pear flavor with a hint of tartness. This large pear has small brown lenticels on its clear yellow skin

"Sunburst" is a large sweet pear that excels in flavor and sugar over the traditional varieties developed for the Asian climate. It has a unique brown russeted area around the stem area of the pear.

In addition, Mrs Estabrook has several other promising varieties not yet fully tested.