Harvesting the Kieffer Pears

It's not much of a harvest this year.  But one of my pear trees bloomed, and I was surprised to see that some fruit actually developed.  I've mentioned before that there was an old Kieffer tree at my new house.  The tree did produce some pears, but also had a huge poison ivy vine thoroughly embedded in it, and I cut it down.

Now I have planted two more.  They have virtues--although they aren't the first choice for fresh eating, they do can well and make nice preserves.  They also dehydrate well.  Prime time for Kieffers in north Georgia seems to be late August / early September.  I may have been jumping the gun a little bit, but I went ahead and pulled mine just after mid-August.

I haven't actually cut into them yet, so don't know if I have curculio issues--they got no Surround or other preventive treatment, and I also did not do anything for fire blight.  I had some of that on both apple and pear trees.  It was very minor on this Kieffer.  That is one of the virtues of the Kieffer pear; it is not particularly susceptible to fire blight.

I didn't get much off the tree this year. I will probably just dehydrate them...or I may re-assess and make some preserves.