[Editor's note] The forest is full of treasures. The sales of forest products produced in Korea's forests, including pine mushrooms, omija, wild ginseng, and dried persimmons, exceed 7 trillion won. As interest in health and sustainability has grown through the pandemic and the climate crisis, the future value of resources from the forest is rising further. The value chain of forest products does not end with cultivation and harvest. It is expanding into a sixth-sector industry that encompasses processing and distribution, tourism and experiences. This is becoming a new growth engine for local economies and communities. Beyond being an ecological space, the value of the forest is being re-examined as a platform that connects the economy, culture, and health.
Pear, one of the representative fruits of autumn, has long been known to be cultivated domestically. Records about pears are contained in the Samguk Sagi and Samguk Yusa.
However, there is a difference between the pears recorded in the past and the pears we eat now. The pears we commonly eat today include "Shingo," which was introduced from Japan, and early varieties such as "Wonhwang." The pear that appears in past records is the native wild pear "dolbae."
For city dwellers, "dolbae" is an unfamiliar name. As its name suggests, dolbae is a hard fruit. Its sugar content is much lower than that of regular pears. Rather than being eaten raw as fruit, it is mainly used medicinally.
Wild pear trees are also widely used as "rootstock" (root tree) in pear orchards. It is a method of grafting branches of fruit pears such as Shingo onto the roots and trunk of wild pear trees, which have good cold hardiness and resistance to pests and diseases, to grow them into a single tree. A tree grown this way has wild pear roots, but bears Shingo pears as its fruit.
◇ Managing a 30,000㎡ farm alone… "It doesn't take much labor"
On the 12th, we met Kim Dong-hun (58), head of Iban Village Farm, who cultivates wild pears in Suncheon, Gwangju, South Jeolla. Kim inherited the farm from his grandfather. The farm spans 33,058 square meters (about 10,000 pyeong). Pointing to the ridge near the top of the mountain, Kim said, "From the mid-slope to the end, it's all wild pear trees."
Kim said he handles management tasks for the wild pear trees, such as weed removal, by himself. The most important part of managing wild pear trees is preventing fungal diseases, a task done around April each year. "When pear trees meet junipers, black spot (Venturia nashicola) and cedar apple rust can occur," he said. "To prevent this, I carry out the work once or twice in April."
Other than that, there is little need for hands-on work. Because they are hard, even wild animals rarely touch wild pears. "Wild boars bite them and just leave—those are wild pears," Kim said. "They're so hard that damage to forest products from wild animals is minimal."
◇ Beyond juice and syrup to jelly… Also used as a cosmetic ingredient
Harvesting is done after the wild pears are hit by the first frost. Kim explained that wild pears ripened after frost become less astringent and gain deeper nutrition and flavor.
Harvested wild pears go through a ripening process in a cold storage. This is to make the hard pears a bit softer. After about a month of ripening, the sugar content of wild pears rises from 7–8 Brix to as high as 10 Brix.
Even if the sugar content of wild pears increases, they are not eaten as-is like regular pears. They are usually processed into juice or syrup. To improve public accessibility to wild pears, Kim recently developed a jelly-type health supplement. Wild pear jelly is also supplied to local schools.
The Dongui Bogam records that wild pears are good for coughs and asthma. Wild pears are relatively rich in luteolin, which helps bronchial health, and antioxidants. Polyphenol compounds are generally known to be effective in eliminating reactive oxygen species in the body and preventing cellular aging.
Beyond medicinal use, they have recently gained attention as a natural material free of microplastics. Since old times, the "stone cells" in pears have been regarded as a natural tooth-brushing material. There is even a saying, "Eat a pear and brush your teeth" (meaning one deed brings two benefits). Wild pears contain more stone cells than regular pears. "If you use wild pears as a material for sheet masks or scrubs, you can thoroughly remove fine dust and yellow dust from the skin," Kim said, adding, "We are also preparing to develop a hangover-relief functional product."