Evaluation: Gorham

Another first crop and another pleasant surprise. Gorham has some rather disparaging descriptions in catalogues, but I found it a good quality pear with a nice flavour. Very sweet, very juicy when fully ripe, slightly granular flesh with a trace of buttery quality. Skin quite thin, with no trace of bitterness.

Slightly more acid than some, it poached very nicely, with a distinct 'tinned pears' flavour, but with much better desert qualities than a Bartlett type.  I'm glad, as the crop is about 2.5 kgs. Follows on nicely from Fondante d'Automne, of which only the last few are left. Seems to keep quite well, unlike some early pears which ripen and go over very quickly. Excellent, duel-purpose, heavy-croping pear with good, compact growth habit and no disease problems.

So far, not a day without fresh pears since the Morettini crop started to ripen in early August.