On Fri, 13 Sep 2013 15:23:55 +0100, Broadback wrote:

When is the best time to harvest pears to bottle? Mine are not soft yet,
but starting to drop off the trees.

Do you know what kind they are? Some need to be harvested hard, then
left to ripen. Here that is the case for Conference, but not for
William. A friend has an old tree of uncertain origin, the pears need to
ripen for a couple of months, then are really good only for a short time
before turning very grainy.

Still I'd imagine that for bottling you'd want quite a firm pear.

--
Gardening in Lower Normandy