Pears

[laurab]

During the summer it has sometimes been difficult finding soft conference pears and have often had to resort to buying Williams etc but I have noticed my birds do prefer the Conference pears - does anyone else have fussy birds?

[kenny]

hi laura
yeah mine wont eat caviar!seriously though i have had some strange things happen with food this year i found some canaries that would not eat soaked seed especially when they where brought up on the stuff..i keep leaving a dish in there with my young ones mixed with eggfood and they dont touch it!

ken

[Waxbillman]

hello Laura

ripen them yourself, all it needs is a sunny windowsill

i buy my fruit for my softbills from the greengrocers in the village, i don't know what they are like down your way but the produce is often far better than a supermarket also cheapers too and not covered in 3 layers of packaging.

the conferance pears in particular are much better, the ones my local gets have obviously been harvested at the correct time, meaning ripening does not take as long

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt/laura
sorry for not answering your post correctly as i was in a bit of a develish mood yesterday:twisted: the problem with conference pears is that they are hard even when you buy them..what i do is the easiest way i think anyway is to put them in the fruit bowl with some bananas on top and they will soon ripen the bananas will probably turn black in the process but your pears will be ripe in no time!

ken

[Waxbillman]

yes that is indeed another way, i believe thats caused by a hormone that the bananas give off i know what its called but i cannot spell in, they use it, or used to use it allot in importing fruits, they picked them before they were ripe, then treat them with the hormone, makes them start to ripens, with out going bad in transit, that naturally ripen fruit would

[chris]

Hi Laura,

all of our robins go mad for confrence pears, we've had serious trouble these past few weeks getting hold of any anywhere near ripe. usually we buy bags from ASDA and ripen them within a week, however we've had them sitting in the conservatory, with bananas, in full sun and heat for 2-3 weeks on end and they're still hard, some have softened but oddly have no juice and are dry when cut so the birds dont touch them!

has anyone tried tomatoes yet? we put some in the aviary due to the lack of ripe fruit elsewhere and that we have millions in the greenhouse, suprisingly the robins really like them. i think peppers are next on the list

Chris

[laurab]

Hi Chris

I have had the same problem with the Confrence pears, the birds eat them quicker than I can ripen them!