You may have picked a little early. I just finished picking yesterday, before our first heavy freeze last night. Also, Don't ripen your pears with a heater. Let them ripen on their own. I keep them refrigerated until I
sell them. They tend to get better after being chilled a few weeks. To ripen put them in your fruit bowl at room temperature or to speed up ripening place them in a paper bags 2-3 days before you want to eat them. Learn to use your thumb to press near the stem to test for ripe. Remember they ripen from the middle.