I have been growing medlars for decades. I find some of them to be really good, and others boring.
I like the ones that are juicy. They seem to be right at their peak of juicy, sweet, tart, and complex.
Others I find to be dry, tough, starchy, sour, even mold infested and terrible.
My initial feeling is that you have to catch them just at the right time.
Sometimes I bring them inside.
I don't know whether that makes them more likely to be excellent or boring.
If I leave them out, squirrels are likely to eat them or they get moldy and taste that way.
Do any of you have strategies or observations on how to improve the likelihood of eating a delicious medlar?
Thanks,
John S
PDX OR
Most sources say to pick them when ripe but hard and store indoors.
As the result of an encounter during the annual meeting the other week,
I was given several pounds of bletted medlars. I processed them in my
auger-type juicer, removing by hand only the sepal tips, stem nub, and pips.
The machine chewed the skins into very fine particles.
The resulting paste, to which I added a bit of water, sweetener and spices,
made a good sandwich spread. The raw paste did hint of apples and cinnamon,
and could be used for a spread as-is. Eating the past straight in large quantity
did not appeal to me, although the mouthfeel was good.
Do you have different medlar cultivars, is there any correlation between the
variety and palatability, or were you writing about them as a group?
What a great experiment! I guess one could probably freeze some of that paste or at least part of it to see what the effect is. I may look into doing something similar.
I was writing about them as a group. I have Royal and Nottingham. I like them both, but I'd say I like Nottingham a little better. I have barely harvested my Nottingham, as I grafted just a tiny branch and forgot about it. I will be getting more Nottinghams probably next year, as I budded them to other parts of the tree, so that will be interesting to see.
John S
PDX OR
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