North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[hans brinkmann <hans-brinkmann@t-online.de>]

Hallo Lon, Doug and Lee,

because of you Lon, I just tried my medlars:
After a few nights with little frosts ALL my HANGING medlars are still 
not bletted and have white and normal hard flesh.
The leaves are very brown-yellow. But the taste is tooo nice now! Not 
bletted and hard and only a very,very little astringent.
I like this very little astringency because this makes a tasty 
difference to other fruits...
Usually after some time the same fruits will be bletted - still hanging 
- at the twigs.
In some years I do have hanging medlars till beginning of January - on 
an other medlar tree.
I think some trees keep them longer and some not - genetically.
And I like them for this long keeping fruits. It looks also nice and at 
winter birds like it also.
The - outside - bletted medlars (inside I did not try), I do not like 
too much fresh, but for pulp and cooking they may be very nice.

We have also one Quince with big fruits and always ready to eat from the 
tree. Not astringent at all and quite juicy and real soft.
But - of course - some typical quince flavor is missing. I think for 
cooking they may be poor - in comparison with other quince...
Right now, I forgot the name, but they came for sure from Russia and 
they start probably with M.
At England some people have also one cultivar, but I did not compare 
them jet.

ciao
hans        Germany

Lon J. Rombough schrieb:

> Had a surprise today. I went to check my medlars and found that a fair 
> number had already bletted on one of the tree medlar trees I have. 
> They are all the same variety, "Nottingham". That was the first time 
> that has happened here. Usually the fruits drop before they blet. 
> Another aspect of the different weather, apparently. There weren't any 
> marks or indications of injury that might have sped up the process, 
> either. The flavor seemed more intense than the usual ones, bletted 
> off the tree. If there was a way to breed for "tree ripened" medlars, 
> it could be useful. No storing or bletting needed, just process the 
> picked fruit into pulp immediately.
> -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.
> For even more grape lessons, go to http://www.grapeschool.com
> For all other things grape, http://www.vitisearch.com
>
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