The Living Landscape: Pears, please!
- Kathleen Scavone
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – I've only ever been a gardener, so I can only imagine the intimate and practical connections and kinship to the great Earth that a Lake County farmer must hold in order to go forward in the fields season after season.
There are a myriad of considerations a farmer must confront, for example soil erosion, water supplies, and depletion thereof. Other considerations include economic pressures and agribusiness.
A glance at the undulating hills surrounding the verdant valleys of Lake County tells us that it's easy to see the huge place agriculture plays here.
Famed pears, walnuts and winegrapes are found in abundance, and have proliferated since the Mediterranean climate attracted settlers and farmers in the 1850s.
It was due to Prohibition, in the 1920s, when the first wave of winegrapes was pulled to make room for more of our pears and walnuts.
The San Francisco Chronicle's Dec. 16, 1885, issue proclaimed, “Without doubt the finest as well as the largest exhibit of fresh fruit in the display is that made by Lake County."
Lake County's Bartlett pears became popular after the New Orleans World's Fair when, in 1889, L. P. Clendenin planted several acres of Bartlett and Winter Nellis pears.
Other farmers followed Clendenin's lead, planting and farming pears. A marketing problem soon arose, since there was no railroad to transport the delectable fruit. As they say, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and, after much experimenting took place the farmers found that the Bartlett pears dried well, producing “slabs of amber.”
An apple and pear dryer was constructed by J.B Laughlin and E.P. Clendenin, and then more pear-drying sheds were established in Upper Lake, Scotts Valley and in Big Valley.
With the popularity of dried Lake County pears came canned pears, around 1923. There were approximately 20,000 tons of pears grown in 1928, and still production was rising.
We are lucky to have in our midst those who come from pioneer pear farmer stock, such as the Holdenrieds. Myron Holdenried's great-grandfather, Louis Henderson, had the foresight to plant pears in 1890. Those same orchards are still thriving today.
According to the Kelseyville Pear Festival's Facebook page, the first commercial orchard was planted on four acres in Big Valley by Thomas Porteus. Others soon followed suit, and by 1919 there were about 700 acres of pears in Lake County.
Known as the “Pear Capital of the World,” there were more than 85,000 tons of pears processed in Lake County, with the majority grown in Kelseyville in 1999.
Today we have the Lake County Pear Association, which was established in 2005 to thank for promoting our delicious pears.
One of agricultural highlights is the annual Kelseyville Pear Festival, in which pears and their products proliferate all day long, with thousands of festival attendees reaping the rewards of the harvest.
The Kelseyville Pear Festival and Parade occur downtown Kelseyville on the last Saturday in September, and is sponsored by the Kelseyville Business Association.
Lake County's pear orchards add greatly to our county both economically, and visually with their appealing beauty. Ukiah in Mendocino County and Clarksburg in the Sacramento River Delta area also produce pears in California along with Lake County, and altogether the three regions produce more than 150,000 tons of pears annually.
According to Scully Packing Co., the Lake County pear crop outlook is excellent this year.
The tentative harvest dates listed on the company's Web site are listed below:
– Bartlett: July 20.
– Red Crimson: July 29.
– Organic Bartlett: July 31.
– Mountain Bartlett: Aug. 5.
– Golden bosc: Aug. 10.
– French butter: Sept. 3.
– Seckel: Sept. 3.
– Comice: Sept. 3.
– Forelle: Sept. 3.
Most farming communities are close-knit, and our pear farmers are no different. They commit themselves to hale-and-hearty business relationships, friendships and labor practices by working hard to care for this rural way of life.
For more information about the Kelseyville Pear Festival visit www.pearfestival.com .
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.”