Bulbous shape with stalk, shiny, freckly skin with white juicy flesh. Comes in many colours. Eat fresh, salads, sliced on platters, poached, pies, tarts, crumbles, cakes and muffins, accompaniment to roast lamb or pork.

Varieties include:
Packham Triumph: Medium-large size dessert variety, green skin becoming light yellow when ripe. Flesh is juicy, firm and subtly sweet.
Beurre Bosc: Medium-large size dessert variety, greenish-brown in colour, becoming a dark cinnamon with ripening. Flesh is crisp, white and juicy and aromatic in flavour.
Williams Bon Chretien (Bartlett): Medium-large size desert variety, light green colour ripening to a clear yellow and sometimes with a pink blush. A juicy, sweet and firm fruit.
Winter Cole: Quite round in shape, these tend to be a green, smaller-sized dessert variety. They feature a white flesh with a very good flavour.
Josephine: Medium sized dessert variety, light green skin that becomes yellow with a pinkish blush on ripening. Juicy fruit with a yellowish flesh that has a rich aromatic flavour.

Selection:
Choose fairly firm fruit that is unblemished. Handle gently as pears can bruise easily even when not fully ripe. Pears that have spent a short time in cool storage will ripen quickly.

Storage:
Firm unripe fruit can be kept at room temperature where it will change from hard green with little flavour, to ripe yellow, which will be full of juice and flavour. When full ripeness is achieved rapid deterioration takes place so keep under refrigeration for a very short time only.

Preparation:
If peeling and slicing fruit that is not to be eaten straight away, brush cut surfaces with any citrus juice to prevent discolouration.

Serving suggestion:
Add chopped pear to baby spinach, toss with melon cubes, mint, spring onions and a dash of vinaigrette to make a refreshing salad.
Poach peeled whole pears in dark grape juice. Cool and serve with low-fat natural yoghurt.

Try these tasty pear recipes:

• Pear and banana muffins
• Poached pears
• Rhubarb and pear crumble
• Fruity crumble