Pears in the Touraine Loire Valley

Like apples and cherries, pears do extremely well in the Loire Valley. The perfect climate for them here has resulted in many very old gnarled pear trees in farmyards and along country roadsides. These old, semi-wild pear trees have fruit that is very large and woody. They are not for eating fresh, and even cooked they are not always successful, so mostly now they become food for omnivorous wildlife such as martens and badgers. 

Doyenne de Comice and Nashi pears in my orchard.

Happily, we can all also grow more modern varieties in our orchards. I have the well known Williams, Doyenne de Comice and Beurre Hardy in my orchard, and my local organic commercial orchard grows them plus Conference and Président Héron amongst others. More surprisingly, I also inherited a Nashi (Asian pear) in my orchard, planted by the retired farmer who owned the parcel before me. In French they are called pomme-poires. And every year I am lucky enough to get a bag full of pears for free from the famous gardens at Villandry. Their carefully shaped pear trees on the corners of the potager garden are always overloaded and they have to pick some and give them away. They are a very good but hard to get variety called Louise Bonne.

Poires tapées (dried pressed pears), a true local delicacy.

Sometimes when I am out walking I realise the rural landscape here is full of pear trees, wild in the hedgerows, along the backroads and in small household orchards. In early autumn they are loaded with fruit, which falls on the road to be squashed, but is woody and hard in the mouth. According to local amateur historians they were used as a source of sugar to sweeten wine, in the days when your wine was stored in barrels, and frequently went off (ie turned to vinegar) before you had made the next vintage. If eaten they were always cooked, but they don't seem to have been used for poire williams type eau de vie or to make perry (Fr. poiré), the pear version of cider. The best known local pear delicacy, unique to the Touraine Loire Valley, is poires tapées, pressed dried pears, usually eaten as a condiment for game.

The Poire Williams is from the area around Strasbourg, not traditional to the Loire Valley.

 New season pears appear at the markets in August, sometimes earlier, and different varieties continue coming in for several months. While they are in season I poach them, make pear tart, pear sorbet and poire belle Hélene. Pears suit the Touraine Loire Valley palate, being delicately flavoured and fragrant, not too sweet and going perfectly with caramel.

A pear in the garden of the Priory of St Cosme, which was the home of the Renaissance poet Ronsard, in La Riche, a satellite of Tours. I highly recommend him to French learners.

Fruit from my orchard, mostly pears.

Some of my pear harvest (and some apples). Pears need to be picked while still just unripe, then ripened in trays.

Two semi-wild pear trees in an old hedge along a narrow rural backroad. In the middle distance another pear tree and beyond that the castle and village of Le Grand Pressigny.

 

 

 

Homemade pear tarte tatin. [Recipe link]

The blossoming tree on the left is an old rather stunted pear tree, just randomly growing on the side of the road/edge of the field.

A big old pear tree, dropping fruit everywhere, in a farmyard.

A 'wild' pear in the hedgerow.

Toffeed pear with praline ice cream, at Le Relais de la Mothe. This was my birthday dessert a couple of years ago.

The potager garden at Villandry. The small egg shaped trees are carefully pruned and shaped pear variety Louise Bonne.

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