Don’t put up with supermarket pears when there are many delicious varieties you can grow yourself. This month, fruit expert David Patch shares five of his favourites

David Patch

There is an impressive range of pear varieties to choose from

Ithink pear trees are sometimes viewed as the poor relations when planting fruit trees.There is the notorious wait until they start to fruit (‘pears for your heirs’), the fact that they almost all need a pollinating partner, but above all it is that people are brought up on supermarket fruit. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: ‘There are only 10 minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat’ and buying under-ripe pears from the shops it is easy to see why. Rock hard and grainy, they sit unnoticed and unloved in the fruit bowl, until you see that they have somehow gone from unripe to overripe in the blink of an eye, and are fit only for the compost heap.

With careful choice, however, you can enjoy the delicious taste of pears from your own trees, still warm from the autumn sun, and bursting with flavour and juice.There is a whole host of varieties out there, many of which are virtually unknown, and which I hope can tempt you to grow your own.