Hello all! Happy Sunday to you!

About 15 years ago, I ordered a couple of pear trees mail order. One was an Anjou, which is is. The other was suppossed to be a Seckle, which it clearly wasn't once it started to bear.

Anyway, the pears on it are very late, green, squatty with short stems and not much neck, and bigger at the equator than at either end. Skin is green turning yellow, with sometimes just a blush of red, and they can have moderate russeting, although this varies with the year. Flesh has a rather unique, IMO, crispy texture more similar to an Asian Pear or an apple than the softer, more buttery texture of many European Pears. It's a nice, productive tree. Flavor is good. They're good for canning as well as fresh eating, and also for pies or pear sauce. I generally harvest mid-October, and they keep well for a couple of months in cold storage.

I've always wondered what it was, since it's NOT, clearly, a Seckle, fruits are wrong shape, wrong color, too late, and way too big.

Well, I went to the Farmer's Market yesterday, just to check it out, even though I never buy anything, since I grow all of my own produce, and I was in that neighborhood anyway for other errands.

I was so happy to see one of the vendors selling baskets of MY mystery pear -- 'Winter Nellis' -- same shape, same color, same look, same size, clearly the same variety.

So, now I know what I have. Mystery solved.

That only leaves me one thing to do next spring -- FINALLY get around to ordering that Seckle I've always wanted, and hope that's what I actually get this time.

Dennis

SE Michgan