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Medlar is a fruit related to quinces and apples, and part of the rose family. Medlar trees grow very slowly to 10 to 25 feet tall (3 to 7.5 metres), with a spread of 7 to 15 feet (2 to 4 1/2 metres). The wood of the tree is light red and very hard with a very fine grain; it was often used for canes and walking sticks. The trees will start bearing fruit after 4 to 6 years, and are very long lived. The leaves are long and pointed with hairs underneath them.
The trees bloom a month later than apple trees, producing pinky-white flowers. The fruit is small and round. It starts off with greenish-yellow skin ripening to rust coloured. There is an indent at the top of the fruit, and several seeds inside.
The fruit is picked in the autumn when the leaves start to fall off the tree. You pick them right after the first frost, when they are still hard. At this stage, they are not only too hard to eat, they are also too sour to eat. The fruit needs to rot a bit first (this is called "bletting") before it is actually considered "ripe" enough to eat. This takes about 2 to 3 weeks in storage. They will become soft, mooshy brown, sweet and tasty with a flavour close to applesauce or cider. If the word "rot" is too indelicate, you could always say that they need to mature, like a wine or cheese.
Medlar varieties include: Dutch, Macrocarpa, Nottingham and Royal. Nottingham fruits are about 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide. The Dutch and Macrocarpa have somewhat larger fruit.
Medlar has fallen out of fashion. Neglected, it now grows wild or in abandoned orchards. Many of these trees are very, very old. Some are thought to be even centuries old.
Cooking Tips
You can eat Medlars out of hand, or make a thick sauce out of them which you then pour into a pie shell and bake.
Medlar is very high in pectin. Good jellies and jams can be made from it.
Storage
Store in a dry place.
History
Medlar was probably native to the eastern Mediterranean. Was grown in Greece by 700 BC; came to Rome about 200 BC. The Romans cultivated them. Medlars are shown in the mosaics at Pompeii. Medlars were also very popular in the Middle Ages.
Literature & Lore
" I'll graff it with you, and then I shall graff it with a medlar. Then it will be the earliest fruit i' th' country; for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the medlar." -- Rosalind. As You Like It: Act 3, Scene 2. Shakespeare.
Language Notes
Pronounced "medler". Mespilon (Greek) > Mespilum (Latin) - Medlier (Middle French) - Medeler (Middle English) - Medlar.
At one point, it was thought that Medlar fruit had originated in Germany. Thus the "germanica" in its scientific name.
Also called:  Northern Loquat
Open-Arse Fruit Mespilus germanica (Scientific Name) Néfles (French) Mispeln (German) Nespole (Italian) Nìspolas (Spanish) Mespilum, Mespilus, Nespilum (Roman)
See Also
Bletting
Other entries for Hard Fruit
Apples, Apricots, Avocado, Chayote, Citrus Fruit, Guava Fruit, Kiwis, Mangos, Maypop Fruit, Medlars, Melons, Nectarines, Papaya, Passion Fruit, Peaches, Pears, Persimmons, Plums, Pomegranates, Quinces, Red Sorrel, Rose Hips, Sapote, Star Fruit, True Service Fruit
Other entries for Fruit
Bananas, Bletting, Candied Fruit, Dried Fruit, Drupes, Olives, Rhubarb, Soft Fruit
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