This Year’s Pear Harvest The Worst We’ve Seen in Decades

How do you feel about pears?

For me, I love pears though I rarely eat them and never buy them.

I'm more into apples and use apples for a lot of things. There's plenty of diversity with pears one can utilize, though.

It's unfortunate to hear that this year's pear harvest is the worst the northwest has seen in probably 40 years.

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You can thank the cold weather at the beginning of the year for that.

All those days with freezing temperatures with degrees in the single-digits... never a good look.

According to the president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association, when speaking to The Spokesman, the cold weather caused damage to the point where when fruit did product it would cause 'rust spots' on pears. You can still eat them but would have trouble selling them.

The Pacific Northwest, Washington and Oregon, specifically, produce about 75% of pears in the U.S. and it's big business for us.

This year they're looking at about 30% below average for production.

Like apples, there are also different types of pears. Different types of pears may grow at different times so that could have some affect on growth as well.

Pears aren't going anywhere and this season, though there may be a loss due to this year's harvest, there'll still be plenty of pears so it's not like they'll be rare or anything. It's just not as in abundance to previous years. Here's hoping next year makes up for it.