History

SO BIG AND JUICY, YOU EAT THEM WITH A SPOON®

To taste this remarkable fruit is to enjoy a rare gourmet experience: A timeless flavor and texture that have remained unchanged for more than 150 years. It is one of the many excellent pear varieties that came about as a result of a fierce rivalry that flourished among aristocratic landowners throughout southern Europe in the 19th century. In fact, it was considered the height of fashion to enter one's own estate-grown pears in the international horticultural exhibitions that were all the rage.

This particular variety — the one we call the Royal Riviera — was first grown in the vicinity of Angers, France, in the 1840s. Those early crops were chancy and difficult to bring to harvest, but the taste and texture of the few pears that survived were so clearly superior, the entire crop was reserved for the exclusive enjoyment of nobility.

Royal Riviera® Pears are so temperamental about soil and water and light and temperature that they're really at home in only a few places in the world. By the late 1800s, horticulturists had discovered that this sublime variety seemed to thrive here — in the interior valleys of Southern Oregon.

It takes nearly 20 years for a Royal Riviera® Pear tree to hit its productive stride — and some of the trees here in the Harry and David orchards are over 60 years old now. For all those years they've been pruned, watered, fed and generally pampered into producing fruit of exceptionally high quality.

Then the pears must be nurtured through spring frosts, summer hailstorms, autumn winds — and the harvest itself. (Royal Riviera® Pears are so thin-skinned they're actually more difficult to handle than hen's eggs.) They're a scarce commodity — highly prized, extremely rare, truly magnificent.

Harry and David shipped their very first box of this exquisite gourmet fruit during the 1934 holiday season. And after all these years, one thing remains true: Once people see and taste a Royal Riviera® Pear, they always look forward to the next one.

Today, Royal Riviera® Pears remain one of life's purest luxuries ... a hallmark of living well. Wherever they're shared and enjoyed, they're prized for the knowing smiles and good feelings they bring. In an age when mass merchandising is the rule, and supermarket produce is often a disappointment, it's a real pleasure to provide you with the exception. We envy anyone their first taste.