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  • From: Bob Hartley <bob@sprucemt.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] medlars
  • Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 12:23:33 -0500

Like others on this thread, I have found medlars more trouble than they are worth for eating out of hand. I live in Maryland but have a hobby orchard up near Biglerville, PA. This past year I went up a week or two before Christmas with wife and one son and his family (wife and daughter) to get trees from my Christmas tree patch. While there, I noticed that one of my two small medlars (a Nottingham) had a very heavy crop, still on the leafless tree. There had been a freeze early in the month but unseasonably warm weather ever since. The fruit was soft, apparently "bletted" in situ. I thought they tasted good, my son said they tasted like rotten applesauce and the women said they were too ugly and refused to taste. Anyway I picked about half a bucket, a fraction of the crop, to see what could be done with them.
There is no obvious way to separate the seed & skins from the sauce, so I just dumped them all into a big pot with a cup of water to keep them from burning at the start and broutght them to a boil with occasional stirring and mashing with a large spoon. After about 15 minutes boiling, I let it cool some, filtered it through a couple of layers of cheesecloth, added sugar to the filtrate and boiled it down to the gelling point. The yield was a pint of what looked like apple jelly but with a distinct and very pleasant taste.

Bob Hartley




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