The Fraser family's 30-acre farm is set in the Nelson region on New Zealand's South Island. Rows of carefully maintained apple and pear trees flourish, fed with generous sunlight, ample water and rich alluvial soil. Set in a mountain valley, three national parks are visible from the property.

"Our orchard is well-placed to produce fine pears," said Bruce Fraser, who inherited the land from his father, taking over management of the farm in 1974.

"It's very much a family operation," said Bruce. "My wife Joan does the bookwork, our daughter Carolyn runs the pack house, and her husband, Gregory, is in charge of orchard management. We employ one additional person full-time and up to 60 people in peak season."

Previously a tobacco farm, the Frasers transitioned to growing pipfruit in the mid-1980s, when New Zealand's government offered incentives to farmers who abandoned tobacco. The family planted pears in the mid-1990s and now grows Comice and Taylor's Gold pears and Royal Gala apples.

"Pears became our ultimate choice," said Bruce, "Partly because we were looking for a challenge, and I also wanted something with a solid future. There is a ready market for a quality pear, and the same is not always true for apples."

Bud break occurs in early October, when a host of bees are employed for pollination. Bruce assigns eight hives for each acre of fruit and places them in sunny locations, so the bees will "wake up early and get on with the job." The resulting fruit set is monitored and thinned as necessary.

Bruce grows his Taylor's Gold pears in the Ebro-espalier system, where branches are trained on a wooden frame to grow parallel to the ground in four-tiers. He grows Comice pears in the central-leader system, with the main trunk growing straight up and select branches braced to extend laterally.

"Our growing program is 'green' with very little use of chemicals, some irrigation and foliar feed throughout the growing season," Bruce explained. "Hail is our only real problem here. We've had four big hail storms in the last 22 years, but now most of our crop is protected by hail netting."

Harvest time comes in February or March, and the Frasers add 15 pickers and 45 packers to their staff for the 10 days to three weeks typically needed to clear the fruit. Optimum timing is determined by gauging pressure and sugar levels through penetrometer and brix readings.

"We withhold irrigation 10 days prior to harvest, and wait until four days have passed with no rain before we pick the fruit," Bruce said. "We've found that if we maintain the highest standards possible when picking, then we keep problems out of the packing shed."

The Frasers pears are packed on-site, under daughter Carolyn's supervision. Each pear is removed from its harvest bin by hand and carefully loaded onto the grader by packers wearing gloves. The farm's total production for pears is about 20,000 trays - all packed in the ENZA label for export beyond New Zealand.

"We started growing for ENZA at the same time we began growing Taylor's Gold," said Bruce. "ENZA has a proven track record. They're reliable, and I trust them to market my fruit well. We aim for a 90 percent pack-out rate for Taylor's Gold and an 80 percent rate for Comice."

ENZA and North American marketing agent, The Oppenheimer Group, target the Frasers pears for Harry and David in the U.S. Because of the top-quality pears Bruce produces, the premium mail-order fruit gift retailer awarded him the 'Harry and David Cup' for being the New Zealand grower with the best pear gift pack-out in 2004.

"I gain great pleasure from promoting our product," said Bruce. "There is nothing quite like a big, beautiful, ripe Taylor's Gold pear, flowing with juice. We like the challenge and look forward to aligning ourselves with niche markets and promoting our product more in North America."

With all of his pears now packed and shipped, soon it will be time to prune the trees and to reflect on another successful season completed. The Frasers are also preparing to replace about four acres of Royal Gala apples with two-year-old grafted pear trees, which will take about four years to achieve marketable production, according to Bruce.

On a typical cool sunny day at this time of year, under clear blue skies the Frasers enjoy relaxing a bit, exploring the open lands around their farm, fishing and hiking in the hills.

"My four-year-old grandson, who lives in the house that once belonged to my parents, summed it up the other day," said Bruce. "He gazed around and told me, 'I just love living here.'"