Spring Pears?

We've got a big secret to get off our chests today--something we've been waiting over two years to share.

Here goes: we've been conducting an experiment on how to get pears to fruit in the spring AND the fall, and this year we've got proof that it works!  It's two pear crops per year for us from here on out, and we're super excited.

The trick, it turns out, is to graft local pear scion wood onto root stock from the opposite hemisphere of the world.  Fortunately, the homesteading corner of the blogosphere is an international community, and we were able to score some Red Anjou pear root stock from a friendly blogger in the Land Down Under (thanks, Farmer Liz!).

A little whip and tongue grafting, using Bartlett scion wood, and we managed to get one out of five grafts to take (which was much better then our Anjou rooting experiment!).  And for the last two years, we've been loving and massaging that little tree like a pretty new pet.  And since we managed to avoid killing it, the Aussie-rooted-Yankee-topped pear tree decided to reward us with a single pear this spring. 

At the same time, we were testing other methods, too.  It doesn't work to grow the seeds from the southern hemisphere or transplant a whole pear tree from there--those trees fruit ONLY in the spring.  We haven't tried it with northern hemisphere root stock and southern hemisphere scion wood; it's possible that combination would work, too.

In any case, have a look!

There it is...dangling all ripe and delicious-looking from our custom pear tree.  Just underneath the pear, you can see blossoms starting to form, which we hope will give us some more pears in the fall!

Once picked, it certainly doesn't look any less ripe and delicious-looking.

And, the inside looks as good as any pear we've ever had! Yum. Look,  Doyle, there's a tasty-dactyl!

What kinds of fruit are you eating this spring?  Let us know in the comments section below!

Also, happy April Fool's Day! (Props to ck, who figured it out on her own!)