I think they'll soften and I'm sure they won't sweeten enough to make any difference.

They don't ripen further off the tree. They remain as they were when picked and then soften/rot.

I have 2 varieties, one that ripens in September and another that takes until October. The later ripening one is sometimes a complete loss because in the fall we can get some storms that blow all the fruit right off before fully ripe. I wish they would ripen further ;)

Do any of you have good recipie/ideas for Asian pears? A friend brought me a least a dozen, probably more!
Can you can them?
What's the best use of so many!
Thanks all!

Caroline your idea of how to use pears and my own probably aren't the same, but one way to use them that I like is to make a fruity hot pepper jam.

All you need are the pears, some hot peppers and pectin. Lots of recipes around to cannabalize, but pears work great with hot peppers to make a mildly sweet jam where the heat is greatly cut down while allowing the capsaicin to be experienced by the body (careful, it can be addictive as it creates a sort of euphoria) without the mouth melting heat effect.

Even people with no affinity for hot peppers often love hot pepper jam.

justaguy2 , that is not correct. In fact, commercial pear growers know that you get a BETTER pear when the last bit of ripening is done in cool, not cold, storage. Pears are unique this way. Most all other fruit will ripen somewhat but not be as good as tree ripe. Pears are the exception. While Asian pear is not as needy of this off-tree curing, they can still benefit.
Keep then in a part of the refrigerator that is not too cold and they will improve. It may take anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks to reach their best.
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/pear.html

Hmmm... I am going to have to modify my statement that they won't ripen off the tree and re-express it as "I don't know if they will ripen off the tree".

I went back to the Wisconsin Extension information I read years ago when I was looking to purchase my trees because I had thought it said they wouldn't ripen off the tree. In rereading it i see they don't say that. They say essentially the same as ATTRA does in that they do ripen all the way on the tree unlike European pears. Nothing I have seen yet (haven't looked real hard) explicitly says they won't ripen any further off the tree.

So, I don't know.

I have ripened asians off the tree because I picked them too early. While they got ripe, they were never as sweet and crunchy as the tree-ripened ones. So I would say yes they will and no you don't want to do it unless there is no other choice.

Scott

Yikes! I have stored Asian pears from my trees every winter for years, and I assure you that they don't appreciably sweeten in storage. Most seasons my Korean Giants just don't all ripen so I've had ample opportunity to observe the hoplessness of waiting for sugar from their green fruit. These are fruit that were only a week or two of warm weather from ripeness.

Bananas sweeten off the tree. Apples sweeten off the tree- most fruit does not. Starch has to change to sugar. I don't even believe that Euro pears sweeten off the tree and that they must be picked hard ripe with the sugar already there.

Wait to they turn from green to golden brown for shinko shinseiki ripens from green to yellow

It's like Apple, they ripen even if they're not soften.....you con harvest in a very long period of time and the can be stored for long time.

No THEY WILL NOT RIPEN ANY FURTHER once harvested. I know this first hand because I have an Asian pear tree and it also states it in the Farmers Almanac.

https://www.almanac.com/growing-asian-pears-easy-and-exotic#:~:text=Unlike%20the%20European%20pears%20that,5%20months%20in%20the%20refrigerator.https://www.almanac.com/growing-asian-pears-easy-and-exotic#:~:text=Unlike%20the%20European%20pears%20that,5%20months%20in%20the%20refrigerator.