KELSEYVILLE — It was a celebration of the pear in Lake County, even though there isn”t much pear-wise to celebrate these days.
The 14th annual Pear Festival went off without a hitch in downtown Kelseyville on Saturday. The festive mood belied a restive market situation. As a result of a labor shortage in Lake County packing sheds, the county”s growers have seen their unpicked fruit rot on the ground. A staggering 10,000 tons of pears were left unharvested this year, according to the California Farm Bureau.
The gloomy state of the industry definitely rained on the Pear Festival”s parade.
Even amid the usual revelry and good-neighbor camaraderie extant at the festival, there were hints of the gloomy picture outside.
A packing contest offered one hint. The upside was that Hipolito Jiminez of Adobe Creek Packing finally outpacked his wife, Maria, from the same company while Amelia Rameriz of Scully Packing was third.
“She (Maria) usually wins, but he beat her this year,” said Shirley Campbell of Scully, who oversaw the competition.
The downside was that Adobe Creek and Scully are the only packing companies remaining from what once numbered nine sheds.
Supervisor Rob Brown, whose district includes Kelseyville, remembers the heyday for pear packing.
“My grandmother did this, my mother, my wife and I, and my son, who”s a law student now, all worked in the shed,” he said.
“It”s unfortunate that it (the pear industry) seems to be dying out,” Brown added. “Hopefully, they”ll be able to bring it back. In Lake County we offer a superior product to anywhere else in the world and it”s nice when the market realizes that.”
At another location, the University of California Agriculture & Natural Resources department was trying to make something good happen.
Sampling was being conducted on half a dozen new strains of pears that the University of California has developed to see if there could be an alternative to the Bartlett pear — something that would ripen at a different time and extend the pear harvest-time period.
Cornelia Siebers, a U.C. volunteer, said that testing of new varieties is in its third year. She said that 15 varieties overall are being tested at three sampling sites and involving about 250 random members of the public at reach site. The next testing will be on Oct. 14 at Steele Wines during the Harvest Festival. A third sampling is set for early November at the Ferry Plaza Market in San Francisco.
One of the varieties called Blake”s Pride received a high-enough rating to break out of the pack of experimental pears last year and is now on the market in tree form for farmers who may want to try them.
What happens if the pear market can”t be brought back?
“I dunno, I dunno,” said a troubled Brown. “We should be looking at plan B, but I hope it doesn”t happen.”
Contact John Lindblom at jlwordsmith@mcshi.com.
