Gorham

Gorham is a high quality American pear, but with an all European-ancestry. Its juicy melting flesh is very typical of the best European pears of the 19th century, and it is related to both the English Williams pear and Belgian Josephine de Malines.

Gorham can perhaps best be considered an improved Williams pear. From Josephine de Malines it gets better keeping qualities and an improved flavour (even though Williams is already well-regarded for flavour).

Like Williams, Gorham is versatile - as well as being a superb dessert pear, it is also useful for cooking and bottling.

Growing and Training

Being an American pear with a European pedigree, it is perhaps no surprise that Gorham does best in dry sunny climates. It should perform well in the south-east of the UK, but elsewhere be sure to choose a sunny spot, preferably in front of a south-facing wall.

Gorham also has a very good level of disease-resistance, and its excellent pedigree ensures it is a good and reliable cropper.

The fruit size is relatively large by pear standards - provided you thin the fruitlets in late spring.

History

Gorham was raised in1910 at the famous New York State Agriculture Experiment Station at Geneva, New York - now part of Cornell University.

Gorham is a cross between Josephine de Malines and Williams, two classic old world pears. Williams, also known as Bartlett in the USA, had proved very well-suited to the North American climate and by the late 19th century was a well-established commercial variety. Williams was therefore a natural starting point for American growers, but despite being an improvement over Bartlett by virtue of its later-ripening and better keeping qualities as well as a superior flavour, it has not achieved the commercial success of its ancestor.

Gorham characteristics

• Gardening skillAverage
• Fruit persistenceNormal ripening
• Self-fertile?Self-fertile
• Pollinating othersAverage
• Pick seasonMid
• Keeping1-2 months
• Food usesEating freshCulinary
• Country of originUnited States
• Period of origin1900 - 1949
• Fruit colourGreen / Yellow

You might also like these varieties

• 
  Beth
  An easy and reliable early-season pear, with a very good melting flavour.
• 
  Concorde
  A marriage of Conference and Comice - Concorde is easy to grow, heavy crops, excellent flavour.
• 
  Conference
  Conference is a popular and reliable English pear, well-suited to the UK climate.
• 
  Williams
  Williams is a classic English pear, also known as Bartlett, with good flavour and quite easy to grow.

More about pear trees

The modern dessert pear with its refined flavours and melting flesh evolved in the 19th century, and with some exceptions almost all the pears we know today were developed at that time.

Unlike apples, which often helpfully come away in the hand when they are ripe, if you let pears ripen on the tree you will find they are overripe inside. Instead pears need to be harvested before they are ripe - then ripened in a fruit bowl. This just takes practice, and after a few seasons you will soon know the tell-tale little signs that your pears are ready for picking.