I just wanted to share my pleasure at finding that the community garden on my estate has a medlar tree! I went to look for fruit with my partner. All the apples had gone, but we came across a small tree and thought, Aha! What's this? The medlars are now bletting in the cupboard.

What is a medlar? And, what is bletting?

It is hard to find loquats commercially, so I don't get to have very many in my life. I do love cumquats though. I thought these medlar were Japanese or Chinese trees.

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- Jim

�Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.� Sir Winston Churchill

I didn't know what Medlars were either, but now I know, its just the bletting thats got me stumped now.

The medlar is a fruit that was popular in Europe in the middle ages. It's in the rose family, like apples etc.

I have seen loquats sold under the name medlars in a Turkish greengrocer - maybe a translation problem.

Bletting is the process of storing the fruits until they start to rot. After that they are properly ripe and they develop a delicious, deep toffee flavour. The ones in the photo are just picked, not ripe yet.

Attached Images

medlars1024x768.jpg (238.3 KB, 2 views)

Thanks for the info!