View full sizePhoto Courtesy of Subarashii Kudamono
Driving to Kempton, Pa., this time of year offers a fall scene splayed out in all its splendor -- old farmhouses, wide expanses of farmland and shimmering ponds.
But as you come upon Subarashii Kudamono, the orchards seem to glitter in the sun.
It’s not a trick of the eyes or a clever marketing ploy. Strips of Mylar are tied into each Asian pear tree — hundreds of acres, spread across four orchards — to make the orchard look as if it’s on fire. It's a tactic to deter birds, says General Manager Thomas Sacks.
So what’s an Asian pear farm doing smack dab in the middle of Pennsylvania farmland?
The first seed
Subarashii Kudamono is a working farm, not typically open to the public. It is owned by Lutron Electronics Inc., an electronics and lighting company that has its U.S. headquarters in Upper Saucon Township outside Coopersburg.
Subarashii Kudamono grows 10 to 20 varieties of Asian pears that are shipped across the country to specialty food stores, restaurants and individual customers. Customers can order customized Asian pear gift boxes with a mix of varieties from the company's website, wonderfulfruit.com, but the supply is limited.
The unusual pairing of an electronics company and a pear orchard isn't lost on Subarashii's marketing director, Holly Harter. She said that in 1973, as Lutron was growing and extending its reach to the Pacific Rim, Lutron owner Joel Spira fell in love with the Asian pear.
It was tradition at the conclusion of meetings to have an Asian pear, as a sign of friendship, Sacks says. When Spira returned home to Pennsylvania, he couldn’t find the pears in U.S. stores, so he decided to grow his own at his home in the Coopersburg area.
With the help of his wife, botanist Ruth Rodale Spira, a small orchard was started there and the company began experimenting with different varieties.
Harter acknowledges it’s unusual to find a corporation not affiliated with agriculture that owns its own orchard.
Today the original Coopersburg-area site, planted in the late 1970s to early 1980s, has become the research and development site for the pear company.
Subarashii Kudamono, which means “wonderful fruit” in Japanese, has blossomed with another orchard in Germansville and two in Kempton, Pa. Sacks says the company has thousands of trees, though it does not provide specific numbers.
Harter says the Asian pear is one of the world’s oldest cultivated fruits. Pears were brought over to Europe and cultivated during the Renaissance, when the traditional bosc pear shape started showing up, Harter says.
Instead of the typical bottom-heavy pear, Asian pears are round with a golden to brown hue.
Though some companies promote the globes as ‘apple pears,’ Sacks insists they are not, nor are they related to apples. It’s merely a way of getting customers to try the unusual fruit.
Despite their beginnings in the '70s, Sacks says Subarashii Kudamono is a relatively young orchard, only at 14 percent of its full production.
In 2009, the company began a massive planting at one of it Kempton orchards, but for the last two years has removed all fruit, focusing on the trees' growth rather than fruit production.
It will be two years before this new orchard begins producing pears for Subarashii’s popular gift boxes.
Halted harvest
During a tour through Subarashii's Kempton orchards, in Berks County, Sacks points out pear trees burdened with the heavy weight of fruit. To the untrained eye, the pears look ripe for the picking. But Sacks and Harter know better.
The October snowstorm froze the juice inside the pears, ruining them two weeks before they were to be harvested, Sacks says.
Sacks can distinguish the pears hurt by the snowstorm by their opalescent sheen, skin hue, the sound the pear makes when shaken and, of course, the taste.
Two years ago stinkbugs hurt the Asian pear crop, and earlier this year, Hurricane Irene knocked off fruit. Harter says the orchard follows traditional natural farming practices, including hand-pruning each tree in December, but the orchard is not organic.
Sacks says the orchard practices an environmentally sensitive, integrated pest management program. Sacks points to gaping holes in the orchard where fire blight, a disease that will run rampant in an orchard, has decimated the once orderly rows of trees.
Orchard workers take other approaches where they can. Dogs guard the high-fiber fruit orchard from groundhogs and mice, and Mylar ribbons protect the trees from above.
A growing business
View full sizePhoto Courtesy of Subarashii Kudamono
The orchard business sells a mix of products, including dried Asian pears, Asian pear wine and Eau de Vie (a type of fruit brandy). Its pear portfolio offers 10 to 20 varieties, including five of the company’s own patented varieties.
Harter says pears reach Texas, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., though business is concentrated in the Northeast. Harter says orders have also been shipped to Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Subarashii Kudamono begins taking orders for pear gift boxes in January. The boxes are filled this week and sell out within a matter of weeks, Harter says. Customers can select which Asian pear varieties they like, tasting and evaluating pears as one would sample wines at a vineyard.
The harvest runs from August until the beginning of November, with most of the work done by hand. Each pear is weighed and graded before it’s packaged.
Since the farm isn't open for sales or visitors, pears can be purchased on the web or at specialty grocery stores. Tours aren't out of the question forever, Harter says, adding that school groups can be accommodated.
Only A-grade pears are marketed as Subarashii Kudamono pears, sold directly to grocery stores such as Wegmans, or tucked into gift baskets to be sent across the country. B-grade pears, often discounted for an asymmetrical shape or hue, are sold under the name Miho Asian pears, and are sold in grocery stores and to chefs looking to infuse their menus. Sacks says C-grade pears, with minor blemishes or those that are not otherwise aesthetically pleasing, are saved to be dried or used in the production of wine and spirits. D-grade pears are earmarked for spirits.
At Hotel Bethlehem, Federica Muggenburg, executive chef and director of food and beverage operations, says the hotel has been using Subarashii pears and wine for as long as she’s been there -- at least five years.
Pears are displayed at the front desk, and used in everything from a pear-and-blue-cheese-mixed green salad to an almond and pear tart. Muggenburg says the pears are crisp with a diverse range of flavors from tart, citrus flavors to sweet, fruity and flowery. Asian pears “pair well” with salty blue cheese or duck, and can be poached in Riesling or port wine for dessert.
Sacks also recommends the pears with a glass of chardonnay and a slice of smoked gouda.
Asian pears do not need to soften, as other pears do, and can last two to three months in the refrigerator, Harter says. The dried pears, without any additives, will last up to one year.
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ON THE WEB
Wonderfulfruit.com
Winesofsubarashii.com
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PRODUCTS
Pears:
*AsaJu
*JunoSan
*LilySan
*SuSan
*EliSan
Hosui
Yoinashi
Niitaka
Meigetsu
Olympic
*
Subarashii Kudamono patented
Other products:
Dried Asian pears
Asian Pear Wine
Asian Pear Dessert Wine
Asian Pear Eau de Vie (spirit)
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COMING EVENTS
Asian Pear and Asian Pear Wine Tasting
Central Liquors, 625 E. Street NW, Washington, D.C.
Night of Lights — "Pearing" of fruit and wines
Lutron Electronics’ Experience Center, 7200 Suter Road, Upper Saucon Township
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ASIAN PEAR CARE
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