The American Pear- the Seckel
Much has been made over the quantity of pears Lizzie claimed she munched while in the hayloft at the time of her father’s murder. Bartletts, Anjou, or other large pear varieties seem a very unlikely candidate for the pear du jour, but there is a very small, sweet pear which may have fit the bill both in size and popularity for the time, the Seckel. Seckels are believed by many to be the only truly American variety of pear in commercial production. Unlike other varieties developed in the U.S. from a cross or bud sport of other European cultivars, Seckels are thought to have originated as a wild seedling near Philadelphia. They were discovered in the early 1800’s and were easy to propagate. For someone who could not “do anything in a minute”- this might be the pear of choice. Thomas Jefferson, a real gentleman farmer says of the Seckel, “. . . finest pear I’ve tasted since I left France & equalled the best pear there.”