Waiting for Respect

Pear growers this summer must be feeling like the last guests to get to the party. Although the quality of this year’s harvest is very good, so far its arrival has merited nothing but a big yawn.

In fact, pear prices are lower than at this point in the harvest in any of the prior five years--including the record 1994 haul, which was almost 20% bigger than this year’s.

The problem is that it is coming amid what has to be one of the best fruit summers in recent history. Peaches, plums, nectarines, grapes, melons: All are having record or near-record harvests, and their prices and quality are outstanding.

If the pear is to be noticed in this company, it will have to stick around until the others leave.

Fortunately, that’s not a problem. Although this year’s harvest is well underway--a full week to 10 days earlier than normal, the river district around Sacramento is already picked and the mountain district in Mendocino and Lake counties is in full swing--pears have staying power.

Unlike most other fruit, pears don’t actually start ripening until after they’ve been picked. Therefore they are perfectly adapted to storage. Pears can be held in cold storage for months before they start to ripen. It’s only when they’re allowed to warm that they begin to release the ethylene gas that finishes the ripening process.

Almost all the pears grown in California are Bartletts, and almost all are sold slightly underripe, pale green just barely breaking into yellow. At full maturity, a Bartlett will be a deep golden yellow, almost the color of fall leaves.

You can finish ripening supermarket pears at home quite easily. Just place the fruit in a bowl at room temperature for one to three days. When you see the color change, it’s ready to eat.

Of course, for all practical purposes, almost all California pears have been shipped by the end of October anyway. That’s when the huge Washington-Oregon harvests begin to arrive in stores. Oregon normally produces about twice as many pears as California; Washington, almost three times as many.

Other good buys in the produce department this week: peaches, plums, nectarines, grapes, melons, mangoes, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, eggplant and zucchini. Broccoli prices are also low.

Carolyn Olney of the Southland Farmers Market Assn. reports that Tamai Farms in Oxnard sells great Calico sweet corn, a mixture of sweet and super-sweet kernels, at the Sunday Beverly Hills and Hollywood, Saturday Gardena, Thursday Westwood and Wednesday and Saturday Santa Monica farmers markets.