Seckel pears are about two inches long and sweet. Even though their history stretches back to the 1700s in the Philadelphia area, they're not so common these days, probably because their size makes harvesting more costly for growers. Eating them seems easier, and the core is often so small that I can eat the whole thing except for the stem and the tiny end. They're my favorite pears, so I'm posting about them to encourage others to be on the look out for Seckel pears at farmers' markets and maybe to suggest that orchards grow these.
At the Dane County Farmers' Market in Madison, Wisconsin, Weston's Antique Apples sells them for maybe one Saturday in late August. I was lucky to be back this week to attend meetings and am trying to find out if any farmers sell these in the Baltimore/DC area.
For more information:
"The Pears of New York" by U. P. Hedrick published in 1921: https://archive.org/stream/pearsofnewyork00hedrrich#page/n7/mode/2up [Seckel appears starting on page 215.]
