North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

	For the uninitiated, bletting is a process of after-ripening usually applied to medlar fruits.  In their fresh picked state, medlars are hard, acid, and astringent.  When bletted, the flesh becomes soft, dark brown, and loses the acid and astringency, making the fruit quite nice to eat.   Bletting also works with Sorbus domestica, as has been mentioned here in other threads.
I bring it up because I have been collecting species pears for seed.  Things like P. betulafolia and P. calleryana.  They are hardly larger than a pea, and are quite acid and astringent when picked,  But I find that, like medlars, they lose most of their acid and astringency and become soft and pleasant when bletted.  P. betulafolia keeps some acid, while losing all astringency, to become spicy and surprisingly pleasant.   
Perhaps it might be worth some exploring to try bletting other pome fruits that are ordinarily inedible to see if there aren't more types that blet well.  We may be overlooking a lot of fruits that are not only edible but have exotic flavors only when bletted.  Various hawthorn and species pear fruits would be my first thought.  Any other possibles any of you might have tried?
-Lon Rombough  
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003. 
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