WHEN this photograph was taken, the row of pear trees was a hundred years old. The tallest one on the right of picture produces bullet hard, dark green, usually small and sometimes deformed fruit. Once you have learnt when to pick them, how to store them and how to cook them, they are the greatest fruit on earth.

The pears are so hard that one of our helpers assured me they would not bruise even though she had dropped some; she was wrong!

Pick in late autumn, taking care to leave a short piece of stalk on each one. Store in a single row on wooden slats in a cold but frost- free place. We suspend palettes on strings from the roof of one of the cowpens and it is almost as dangerous balancing on the ladders to place the pears, as it is terrifying to ascend the very tall tree to pick them.

I should add here that one of the reasons why previous farmers and tenants of this land, nine of whom have visited us during the past 25 years, did not bother to harvest these pears is the actual physical difficulty of the task. We have to lash our longest extending ladders to the bucket of the foreloader which with arms at full stretch and either a mad or intrepid picker on the topmost rung enable every last pear to be reached.

Peel and poach them whole or peel, halve, core and cook slowly and gently in the oven in a covered dish with just sufficient water to cover and sugar or honey to taste. 8 ounces of raw pears with 1 ounce of sugar is ideal for us. They are almost white when peeled. Half way through the cooking process they turn light orange and then a miraculous pink when they are ready. Well worth the effort.

Rosamund Young