"New pear variety "Best Ever" offered for the first time in California"
Bred by Frank Reimer near Medford, Ore., in 1935, Best Ever is a cross of the prized Comice pear with an obscure French variety called Louis Pasteur. It’s not a great beauty — the skin is green mottled with a fine russet color — but it blends the buttery texture, sweetness and juiciness of Comice and the flavor of Louis Pasteur, which the great pomologist U.P. Hedrick described as “very fine, melting and sugary, sprightly and perfumed.”
Best Ever is harvested in September but ripens in January and has the rare virtue of storing well as late as May. Meyer is still the only Best Ever grower. Previously the crop was so small that he sold it all to markets in San Francisco and Texas, but he now has enough that fruit will go on sale this Saturday at Gelson’s, at $2.49/lb.
source: latimes.com
