Funnily enough I stumbled upon such a tree while out for a walk in Surrey (UK) last November. Amazed to see a tree laden with fruit in winter, I loaded my rucksack thinking they were some kind of strange quince or something. It was only after a bit of internet research I discovered they were this weird medieval fruit called a Medlar. Out of curiosity I duly ‘bletted’ them and 4 or so weeks later turned them in to medlar-crumble slice. Would certainly agree they taste “like over-ripe dates mingled with lemons”. A lot of faff, but very delicious!
One of my favourite DH Lawrence poems is about these [0]! I’ve always wanted to taste one since I first read it. Perhaps as someone who has tasted them you’ll appreciate it.
I love you, rotten,
Delicious rottenness.
I love to suck you out from your skins
So brown and soft and coming suave,
So morbid, as the Italians say.
Wow, what a great article! And it links to one of my favorite botany papers every written: "The Medlar (Mespilus germanica, Rosaceae) from Antiquity to Obscurity" by John R. Baird and John W. Thieret,
Economic Botany Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1989), pp. 328-372 (45 pages)
I read this by chance when it came out, and for a long while couldn't figure out whether it was a parody or a real scientific article. The whole story seemed so vastly improbable: a vulgar fruit central to Shakespeare that we've mostly forgotten about today, unable to be eaten until it's been rotted in sawdust for a few months --- pull the other one! Anyway, if the BBC article whets your interest in the medlar, you should definitely check out the full article. It's a gem.
To be clear the ‘bletting’ process isn’t really rotting. There isn’t bacterial or fungal decomposition. Instead it is enzymes within the fruit which slowly react with and transform it. This isn’t wholly dissimilar from normal fruit ripening which can happen after the fruit has been picked.
Growing up in south of france, we had a few of theses tree ("Néflier") scattered around the village. I really loved the fruits as a kid, it was a true delicacy. We had to wait until the first freeze in december, and pick them off the ground after bletting. they are really sweet, with a touch of alcool, and one of the few fruit you can find in the wild during the winter.
Now the title is a little bit misleading, they fell out of favor, and not widely available commercially, but definetly not forgotten.
I live in the South-east, and Néfles/Medlars start appearing now actually, tend to be ready in May, when they start turning from yellow to orange. In the summer they're all gone, maybe we're speaking about different species, I think here those Néfliers are 'Japan Medlars', so are not in the same cycle
Persimmons are ready between October and December. Agrums (like mandarines, clementines) from January to March.Figs in summer
Basically you can have something to pick all year long, if people can stop replacing trees by concrete
Yeah, the angle is strange. AFAIK people never stopped using medlar, at least in France. I remember my grandmother making pies, cakes, and jam with it when I was a kid. It might not be a very popular fruit (it’s difficult to sell it when it’s edible, and you’d have to convince people to eat what the’ drake for rotten fruit), but “forgotten” is a bit much.
In Morocco where I grew up, they are quite popular. But we don't wait for them to be rotten before we eat them. So maybe it's a different variety (In moroccan dialect they are called "Mezah")
The same process takes place with astringent persimmons. Persimmons are even weirder because they have four types: pollination constant non-astringent (PCNA), pollination variant non-astringent (PVNA), pollination constant astringent (PCA), pollination variant astringent (PVA).
That means that some (very tasty) types of persimmon can be astringent or sweet when hard depending on whether they were pollinated, which is nearly impossible to tell just by looking at the fruit. The most well known categories of persimmons, at least in the US -- Fuyu types (PCNA) and Hachiya (PCA) -- are not pollination variant.
I know of a few persimmon trees along my running route in Maryland -- I'm not sure what kind, but they produce much smaller persimmons than I see in the store.
I occasionally taste them throughout fall and early winter. They seem to go from "deeply unpleasant" to "mildly unpleasant" to "I suppose I could make jam out of these if I added a lot of sugar".
The article says the medlar is "musmula" in Persian. Maybe, but if you're Iranian, you'll more likely know it as "marmala". Reading this, this sounds oddly like "marmalade", which according to Wikipedia, comes from the Portuguese. But unlike the English version of marmalade, which is made from citrus, the original Portuguese is made from quince, an Asian fruit. My guess is this was actually initially made from marmala, and quince as only a variant. What a wonderful etymological chase through the name of a fruit.
The fact that jars of marmalade are usually labeled "orange marmalade" is a hint that it used to be made from something else, just like tomato ketchup was not always made with tomatoes. (Ketchup used to be a kind of fish sauce from Southeast Asia.)
In Kosovo we call them “mushmulla”, they are quite common. As a kid used to eat a lot and I preferred them in their “unrotten” form since they were freely growing in the hills surrounding my town.
They are very tasty, and can be eaten like a mini apple or pear. They taste like a combination between a pear and an apple. I used to have one in my home/garden.
...it is the baby of the rose family. This little tree produces small fruits in brown to rust color.
These fruits are similar to those of the wild rose, but larger in size.
I think you are confusing the "loquat" with the "medlar". The loquat is still relatively common, doesn't have a gaping open end, is yellow to orange, and can be eaten out of hand. The medlar is darker in color, has a very open calyx, and is practically inedible direct from the tree. The names are sometimes confused, with the loquat sometimes called a "Japanese medlar". Anyway, did yours possibly match this one instead: http://italywithgusto.com/praise-to-the-italian-loquat-fruit...?
I also have one in my garden. In German it is called "Mispel". I wouldn't call it forgotten although I have to attest that probably only history or plant nerds know of it.
As we grow a lot of historic varieties of vegetables a "Mispel" was not so unusual for us.
They're not particularly rare in England (although rarely eaten). You see them a lot in stately homes. And although I don't live in one of those, I have one in my back garden.
Weird Fruit Explorer just did an episode on these if you want to see what they're like: https://youtu.be/IKZsMNfRiRE
The whole channel is fascinating. Probably my favorite niche YouTube channel. I had no idea just how many edible fruits are out there and how strange many of them are. Makes me want to quit my job and travel around the world finding thousands of weird fruits to eat.
I knew it would be the medlar before i clicked! Perhaps i spend too much time reading about rude fruit.
Anyway, it's a great little fruit, makes superb jelly and cheese (ie jelly with pulp, like a very thick jam). Somewhere between plum and date in flavour, perhaps.
I have a jar of my father's medlar cheese in the fridge, might go and pop a bit on some cheese ...
All these quotes form Jane Steward and they never link to her website. It's nice, makes the fruit look a bit more appetizing: https://eastgatelarder.co.uk/
I always enjoyed that bit of Romeo and Juliet in high school...
If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
Now will he sit under a medlar tree
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call medlars when they laugh alone.—
O Romeo, that she were! Oh, that she were
An open arse, and thou a poperin pear.
A few months ago I had a jar of medlar jelly shipped over from the UK via Amazon. It was not cheap but very tasty; the flavor reminded me a bit of quince jelly, another pretty rare item in the US. I'd like to have it again sometime, maybe for a special occasion.
The rest of my medieval foods bucket list includes purslane and sorrel. It looks like I'll have to grow both of them from seeds as I have no hope of buying them from a store anytime soon.
Hmm. Some of us have heard of it via the original Disney animated Jungle Book, where it cameos in the song "Bear Necessities" (or is that "Bare Necessities?" Dual meaning and all that, forget which one is the canonical title.) Anyway, Phil Harris sings:
"Now when you pick a pawpaw / or a prickly pear / and if you prick a raw paw / well then next time, beware! Don't pick a prickly pear by the paw / when you pick a pear, try to use the claw. But you don't need to use the paw / when you pick a pear from a big pawpaw. Have I given you a clue?"
This may have placed me under the erroneous impression it was a tropical fruit.
To avoid confusion, the word "pawpaw" means very different things in different parts of the English-speaking world.
Outside of North America, "pawpaw" usually means what Americans call papaya -- and in some countries (like New Zealand) both "papaya" and "pawpaw" are used to refer to different varieties of what Americans call papayas.
My wife grew up in Belgium and has often mentioned medlar as a wonderful and absurd delicacy. I never had it and she seemed to find it strange that I didn't know of it. A few days ago she excitedly sent me this article. Yesterday we found out her parents have just planted medlar in their garden.
In Dutch there's an expression 'zo rot als een mispel' (as rotten as a medlar). These days this means 'rotten to the core', so I was surprised to learn it originated from a fruit that supposedly tastes wonderful in this state. Although from the Dutch Wikipedia I gather it's more fermenting than rotting that's involved.
I was surprised to see that Google Photos is pretty good at searching for medlar photos I've taken. I knew I'd seen one recently(ish) but couldn't think how I'd figure out where.
So I did a search and it found two sets of photos:
1. the recent ones (presumably recognised directly from the fruit which are in close up, as there's no other indication of what they are) and
2. an earlier set I had forgotten about from six years ago in South Africa - it's hard to tell with that whether it recognised the whole tree (the fruit themselves are not that obvious) or it has read the tiny hand written label on the ground which says "medlar" (sideways for bonus points!)
Odd to call it forgotten; I've known about it for sometime, and it isn't just the fruit-nerd circles I run in. There was even an older tree growing in the yard of an immigrant Greek family in my old neighbourhood in Toronto, they made preserves from them.
There's all sorts of neat things in the same tribe as apples ("Maleae"); one of my favourites is the Amelanchier genus... Known as Saskatoons, Juneberries, Service berries, Shadbush, depending on where you are and which species you're looking at (though they're all very similar in flavour.) Make the best pie.
EDIT: this breakdown process described for medlars is also similar to some varieties of pears, which aren't really ripe "off the tree" but require chilling hours and then re-warming in order for the sugars to transform into something more edible.
[+] [-] kefabean|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ycombinete|5 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/148468/medlars-and-so...
[+] [-] matthewfelgate|5 years ago|reply
I'm thinking of buying some Medlar jam too because I'm curious about it now.
[+] [-] nkurz|5 years ago|reply
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255177
https://sci-hub.do/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255177
I read this by chance when it came out, and for a long while couldn't figure out whether it was a parody or a real scientific article. The whole story seemed so vastly improbable: a vulgar fruit central to Shakespeare that we've mostly forgotten about today, unable to be eaten until it's been rotted in sawdust for a few months --- pull the other one! Anyway, if the BBC article whets your interest in the medlar, you should definitely check out the full article. It's a gem.
[+] [-] dan-robertson|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Angostura|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whyenot|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pvaldes|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ksherlock|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abarachant|5 years ago|reply
Now the title is a little bit misleading, they fell out of favor, and not widely available commercially, but definetly not forgotten.
[+] [-] 11235813213455|5 years ago|reply
Persimmons are ready between October and December. Agrums (like mandarines, clementines) from January to March.Figs in summer
Basically you can have something to pick all year long, if people can stop replacing trees by concrete
Edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26612839 said it all, what I'm talking about are loquats, not medlars, we still call them "néfliers" though
[+] [-] kergonath|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] samfar90|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Toutouxc|5 years ago|reply
Btw it's "mišpule" in Czech.
[+] [-] barathr|5 years ago|reply
That means that some (very tasty) types of persimmon can be astringent or sweet when hard depending on whether they were pollinated, which is nearly impossible to tell just by looking at the fruit. The most well known categories of persimmons, at least in the US -- Fuyu types (PCNA) and Hachiya (PCA) -- are not pollination variant.
[+] [-] richk449|5 years ago|reply
Do people do anything with the astringent types? Do they get better if I wait?
[+] [-] jfengel|5 years ago|reply
I occasionally taste them throughout fall and early winter. They seem to go from "deeply unpleasant" to "mildly unpleasant" to "I suppose I could make jam out of these if I added a lot of sugar".
[+] [-] rahimiali|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yellowapple|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smnrchrds|5 years ago|reply
Are you sure? It looks like azgil (ازگیل).
[+] [-] kijin|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sokols|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] riffraff|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drno123|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ardit33|5 years ago|reply
They are very tasty, and can be eaten like a mini apple or pear. They taste like a combination between a pear and an apple. I used to have one in my home/garden.
...it is the baby of the rose family. This little tree produces small fruits in brown to rust color.
These fruits are similar to those of the wild rose, but larger in size.
https://www.classlifestyle.com/news/39341/mucmolla-shqiptare...
[+] [-] nkurz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mano78|5 years ago|reply
https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mespilus_germanica
[+] [-] nkurz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sdoering|5 years ago|reply
As we grow a lot of historic varieties of vegetables a "Mispel" was not so unusual for us.
[+] [-] marton78|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Schnouki|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rwmj|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] greenyoda|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] modeless|5 years ago|reply
The whole channel is fascinating. Probably my favorite niche YouTube channel. I had no idea just how many edible fruits are out there and how strange many of them are. Makes me want to quit my job and travel around the world finding thousands of weird fruits to eat.
[+] [-] twic|5 years ago|reply
Anyway, it's a great little fruit, makes superb jelly and cheese (ie jelly with pulp, like a very thick jam). Somewhere between plum and date in flavour, perhaps.
I have a jar of my father's medlar cheese in the fridge, might go and pop a bit on some cheese ...
[+] [-] pierrec|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] julianz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zeteo|5 years ago|reply
The rest of my medieval foods bucket list includes purslane and sorrel. It looks like I'll have to grow both of them from seeds as I have no hope of buying them from a store anytime soon.
[+] [-] PLenz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fennecfoxen|5 years ago|reply
"Now when you pick a pawpaw / or a prickly pear / and if you prick a raw paw / well then next time, beware! Don't pick a prickly pear by the paw / when you pick a pear, try to use the claw. But you don't need to use the paw / when you pick a pear from a big pawpaw. Have I given you a clue?"
This may have placed me under the erroneous impression it was a tropical fruit.
[+] [-] crazygringo|5 years ago|reply
Outside of North America, "pawpaw" usually means what Americans call papaya -- and in some countries (like New Zealand) both "papaya" and "pawpaw" are used to refer to different varieties of what Americans call papayas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paw_Paw
[+] [-] barathr|5 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annonacin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetogenin
There are some low annonacin varieties: Sunflower, Wabash, Potomac, Zimmerman, and Wells.
[+] [-] dukeofdoom|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Agentlien|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] raarts|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nmstoker|5 years ago|reply
So I did a search and it found two sets of photos:
1. the recent ones (presumably recognised directly from the fruit which are in close up, as there's no other indication of what they are) and
2. an earlier set I had forgotten about from six years ago in South Africa - it's hard to tell with that whether it recognised the whole tree (the fruit themselves are not that obvious) or it has read the tiny hand written label on the ground which says "medlar" (sideways for bonus points!)
[+] [-] Giorgi|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PuddleOfSausage|5 years ago|reply
I thought this would have been a prime contributor to its vulgar name!
[+] [-] cmrdporcupine|5 years ago|reply
There's all sorts of neat things in the same tribe as apples ("Maleae"); one of my favourites is the Amelanchier genus... Known as Saskatoons, Juneberries, Service berries, Shadbush, depending on where you are and which species you're looking at (though they're all very similar in flavour.) Make the best pie.
EDIT: this breakdown process described for medlars is also similar to some varieties of pears, which aren't really ripe "off the tree" but require chilling hours and then re-warming in order for the sugars to transform into something more edible.