Sweet, juicy, delicious, scrumptious, tasty, delightful, healthy, take along, aromatic, beautiful, handy, dribble down your chin, exciting, a great memory, delectable, luscious, mouthwatering, savory, wonderful and a LITTLE TASTE OF HEAVEN, all describe the topic I have chosen today—the exciting Pears of the Great Northwest.

Now is the perfect time for perfect pears. All the northwest varieties are available from your wonderful, local farmers today. Here are some of the varieties available to you:

Bosc
The Bosc is a brown pear with a long neck. Its stem curves gracefully and is the second sweetest pear—second only to the Comice. It is gritty when not ripe but when ripen, it becomes creamy and sweet. The Bosc has its own wonderful, distinct flavor that I love. It is excellent eaten out of hand and probably the best baking pear because it holds its shape so well.

Forelle
The Forelle is an absolutely beautiful pear, golden in color with a reddish freckle blush. Its neck is fatter than most pears, and they come in both large and small sizes. I the love the baby Forelle pears because of their sweetness as well as how cute they are.

Asian
The Asian—or as some call it, the apple pear—is a crisp, sweet, juicy, delightful, snack pear. I love the Asian but they are unlike regular pears. They come with yellow or brown skins. I prefer the yellow, but love both varieties. They are so juicy and will quench your thirst when you eat one.

I have left my favorite for last:

Comice
The Queen of Pears. Comice is often overlooked because it is so sweet that the skin marks or bruises easily. It is a fat pear whose base looks like the core of a volcano. This pear is truly a delectable treat. It is sweet, juicy, creamy, fragrant, and absolutely delightful. When you have eaten a Comice, you have truly tasted A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN.

While taste is important, nutrition is more so.

A medium-sized pear, weighing about 166 grams, contains roughly 100 calories. Levulose, the sweetest of known natural sugars, is found to a greater extent in fresh pears than any other fruit!

Pair skins are an additional source of fiber. A medium-sized pear contains 4 grams of fiber (16% of the recommended daily allowance or RDA).

Always wash all fresh fruits and vegetables before serving.

Fresh pears offer potassium (210 mg per medium-sized pear) which is an element lost easily through dehydration or perspiration brought on by active lifestyles or strenuous exercise. Potassium is necessary for maintaining a good heartbeat, muscle contraction, nerve transmission, as well as carbohydrate and protein metabolism. You can replenish potassium by eating fresh vegetables, fruits or legumes containing high potassium content. Pears are excellent for this.

Fresh pears contain ascorbic acid, or vitamin C. One medium-sized pear provides 7 mg or 11% of the RDA of vitamin C. As one of the antioxidant vitamins, vitamin C is essential for normal metabolism and tissue repair, helping prevent free radical damage that are destructive by-products of the body’s metabolism process. Vitamin C promotes healing of cuts and bruises and helps guard against a number of infectious diseases.

Fresh pears also have no cholesterol, sodium or saturated fat. They offer a natural, quick source of energy, due largely to the high amounts of two monosaccharides: fructose and glucose. A pear is a nutrient dense food, providing more nutrients per calorie than calories per nutrient.

Carbohydrates make up 98% of he energy provided by a pear, which is helpful in weight-reduction diets since carbohydrates contain half as many calories as fat.