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Medlars.

The Medlar Tree, or Mespilus Germanica is not a native tree of the UK although it has become naturalised in places from Plants that have been cultivated in Gardens and Parks. They do grow naturally round the Mediterranean areas of Europe and being quite hardy, actually grow throughout much of Europe.

Cultivated varieties do exist, but are not often seen on sale in England and are relatively expensive. Some trees that are available may be Grafted to keep them smaller, but Medlars are relatively small trees anyway that will readily fruit at a few years old and only a few feet tall. They are said to grow easily from their large Pips, but I have tried unsuccessfully several times. They are deciduous trees with long leaves not unlike those of a Laurel in shape.

The fruits of the Medlar are very hard and quite inedible until fully ripe, and from one angle, not unlike small apples in their appearance. To soften fruit, they have to be “Bletted,” which is a posh word that simply means the fruit has gone over ripe. When a Pear, or Apple goes soft, brown and is rotten it takes on an unpleasant tang, but Medlars become sweet and quite tasty. The thin Skin on ripe fruit can be carefully peeled off to reveal the soft brown pulp inside which looks most unappetising. From another angle the Calyx end of the fruit is unkindly said, to look like a dog’s bottom and the soft, ripe brown flesh looks like something the dog has done!

This might be interesting to you even if you don’t grow Medlars – yet:
Over Christmas I bought some Cheese that was quite strong and tangy. As I am a fan of Mild Cheddar and Edam, or Baby Bel, the Cheese was not being eaten very enthusiastically and was only getting eaten slowly. Whether I had read it somewhere I don’t know, but I decided to spoon some Medlar paste onto the Cheese and Biscuits. Incredibly the Cheese became Mild losing all of its sharpness and I couldn’t taste the Medlar at all – just the Biscuits and mildness of the Cheese. I have eaten Medlar paste with a Teaspoon for some years so knew that it was sweet and sticky, but in the past I only treated it as an unusual Fruit. I knew the Jelly (Medlar Jam) could be used on various types of Meat but hadn’t thought of using the fresh paste on anything. What else you can combine Medlar paste with I don’t know, but it made me wonder.
Following on from this thought not long ago I did a Google Search and found out some more things about Medlars. I knew that traditionally, Medlar Fruit was used to make a Clear Jam, or Jelly, although the ripe Fruit are brown and the unripe Fruit are the colour of an Apple. I found that Medlar Cheese is another unusual Delicacy that can be made from ripe Fruits. Basically, this is made by boiling mashed up Fruit with water, then sieving it to remove the Pips and Skin and next putting it through a Cheese Cloth to remove the excess water. Finally, you heat up some Sugar and mix it with the paste that will then set into a block which can be cut and sliced just like a block of Cheese. The flavoured water and Juices can be boiled up with more Sugar to make a kind of Clear Jam.
Recently, I found myself with a lot of Medlar Fruit all ripening together so picked out a Saucepan full and tried to make some Cheese. I didn’t get it right and although it thickened, it didn’t set so I made some Pastry Tarts which I then filled with the paste before re-heating and serving with Custard. The resulting Pudding went down very well so the large quantity of left-over Paste was divided up between some small Plastic Tubs and put into my Freezer for use later! I don’t know how it will freeze, but it was boiled beforehand so it should be alright.

One thing that Medlar fruits have going in their favour is that you pick the Fruit very late in the year – well after most other Fruits. This means that you can have fresh English grown Fruit through the depths of Winter when nothing else homegrown is available. Indeed, you don’t usually start picking Medlar Fruits until the Leaves have dropped and we have had the first Frosts of Winter. Both Medlar Jelly and Cheese will keep for a long time if made properly offering a way of making their Fruity goodness available even longer and of course if it turns out that the boiled Paste will keep in the Deep Freeze this is another way of preserving it.

The Medlar has largely gone out of favour – perhaps because when ripe, it is extremely soft and easily damaged. This would make selling it in shops difficult these days. However, a friend of mine recently wanted to try some Fruit before she planted a Tree. So, my thought was to post her some ripe fruits which I did by putting them in a couple of Egg Boxes ! ! ! They got to her safely so perhaps some enterprising Merchant could sell the ripe Fruit in Egg Boxes ! ! !

If Medlars are a little unripe when picked they need to be allowed to ripen somewhere cool and a little damp such as a Shed where they should keep for a few weeks. I keep a tray full in a large outdoor Tool Cabinet, or you could keep a few in the Egg Compartment of a Fridge! ! !. Perhaps I should point out that Medlars will dry out and go inedible, quite quickly if you try to ripen, or store them, in the warmth of a house.



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