Fruit Kingdom, Fukushima
Fruit can be roughly classified into two types, warm region and cold region fruits. Fukushima Prefecture is blessed with great climate, so both types of fruit can be grown. Various fruits such as peaches, pears, apples, cherries, grapes, and persimmon are cultivated and shipped throughout the year. Within Fukushima Prefecture, Fukushima City in particular is referred to as the ”fruit kingdom”. Delicious fruits, mainly peaches and pears, are delivered to the whole country.
Cultivating pear varieties such as “Asazuki” and “Oshu”
We visited Koichi Haga, who grows pears in Fukushima City. He was originally an agricultural coop employee. After retiring, wanting to use original ”Kayaba” land which had been used for pear production, he tenanted an abandoned pear orchard and planted pear trees such as ”Asazuki” and ”Oshu” for cultivation. Besides pears, he also grows small chrysanthemums.
Following Haga, we entered the pear tree orchard. Pears are mainly harvested from September to October. The day we interviewed Haga was at the end of the harvest period and Haga commented ”You may be a bit too late.” Still, there were many pears left on the trees. Haga looked at them and said ”They’re a little too soft now.”
Pears shouldn’t be peeled for the best taste!
Hearing Haga’s comments, Nakata asked as he looked at the pears, ”How can you tell a delicious pear?” and Haga answered ”It tastes best just after it starts to ripen and the greenness starts to fade.”
Nakata carefully observed the pears, chooses one, and takes a bite without peeling it. There is a great sound as he bites into the pear and chews. He smiles brightly after swallowing and commented ”It’s sweet!”. The pear that Nakata ate is a variety called ”Akizuki”. It is a cross between Hosui and Shinko. It has high sugar content and is juicy. It’s main characteristic is its large size. It’s large enough that you might become full if you ate a whole pear.
..However, since Nakata loves pears, he takes bite after bite. Seeing Nakata enjoy his pear, Haga commented ”You must really like pears.”, squinting his eyes in joy. He then served ”Shinko” and ”Oshu” pears for us to taste.
