Magness Pear

The Magness pear was released by the USDA in 1968 as a very high quality dessert pear. The Magness pear is a soft, juicy dessert pear that keeps extremely well. Introduced by the USDA in 1960’s, it was named in honor of Dr. John R. Magness, long-time director of the USDA’s apple and pear breeding program.

Did you know that pears ripen from the inside out? That is why pears are usually picked early and allowed to ripen for a week or so off the tree in order to ripen evenly. If left on the tree, by the time the outside of the fruit seems ripe, the inside may be over-ripe and mealy. The best way to tell if a pear is ready to harvest is by taking the fruit in your hand and tilting it horizontally. If it is ready to harvest, the stem will usually break off easily from the branch. If it holds on, it is not quite ready yet.

To ripen a pear at home, you can put it in a paper bag or just leave it on the counter. To accelerate the ripening proces you can store your pear with an apple or a banana — both are fruits that are more prone to releasing ethylene gas, which accelerates the ripening process.

We only have one Magness pear tree, they ripen around the same time as our Honeysweet pear tree.