Here it was slightly cooler than normal, but the big weather factor was the
almost constant rain and scarcity of sunshine. The heavy rain made the
fruit juicier but diluted the flavor, and the lack of sun definitely
contributed to a lack of sweetness. This was true for my tree fruits,
especially the asian pears, and also a lot of the vegetables, like tomatoes
and melons.

The drought we had last year was horrendous, but the few pears I harvested
were unbelievably sweet (although the skins were tough) and the cantaloupes
were also fabulous.

I waiting for a year without weather extremes.....I remember twenty years
ago when we had a "Camelot" summer.

Cheers,
Sue

--

Zone 6, South-central PA


"simy1" wrote in message

3) this year was somewhat cool for our location. Should I have held up
my harvest until pears would start to drop? As it is, the pears took
two weeks in my garage to ripen properly.