When to pick pears?

[Dreamstosell]

I’ve read that pears should not be allowed to ripen on the tree. So how do I know when to pick them? I don’t know the variety as I inherited the tree with my new allotment. So I’ve nothing to go on. It’s mid September and I’m worried I’m leaving them too late

A few of my conference pears have come off in my hand, others are holding firm so I’m leaving them a bit longer. What sort of pears are they?

'Conference' pears begin to ripen from September and are usually fully ripe between October and the beginning of November. You will know the fruit is ripe when it is soft and yellow. For a crunchy pear, or if you want to store your pears, begin to harvest them before the fruit turns yellow.

We are picking our Williams pears now. They ripen in the boxes over a few days and it's hard to keep up with them! Other varieties will stay longer on the tree/store longer. Conference stay quite hard even when ripe. You may need to experiment. Bring a few on to the kitchen and leave them lying around for a while to see what happens.

I’ve got a dark red cooking pear. I pick when the pears lift off easily, they then need another few days to ripen.

Thanks everyone. They don’t seem to be coming off easily when I move them so I think I’ll wait a bit. I did pick one and I’ll see if it ripens in the kitchen