Medlars,and other unusual foods

Anyone tried Medlars before , Ive been watching a YT , and They have a Medlar Tree, they are adding it to a Smoothie .
I have never heard of this particular Fruit, have You .?

I had heard of medlars before but had never seen any medlar trees until just a couple of weeks ago - I saw some in a garden on the Greek island of Mykonos and wondered what they were.
It was the unusual fruit that caught my attention - these were young fruit that were still developing.
At first I thought they might be related to pomegranates or that they may be giant rose hips but the leaves didn’t look like roses.
When I looked online, I discovered they were medlar trees. I couldn’t try the fruit as it was still developing and unripe but I don’t fancy the description of it - waiting until the fruit rots before eating it does not sound appealing.

I have been served medlar jelly as an accompaniment to a cheese board once and it did look and taste very pleasant.
The nearest thing I can liken the flavour of medlar jelly to is a sweet, slightly spiced, crab apple or quince jelly.

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My granny used to love her medlars and there was a tree up the garden.

Me I like like them mostly for old times sake, I wouldn’t go out of my way

They are a weird fruit because you have to leave them to go almost mouldy after you’ve picked ‘em. You can’t eat them “fresh”

I can see grannies lined up on the window sill now, then she’d get a teaspoon and eat it like custard. They’re very sweet then, more like a date than an apple, they’re mostly pip, though

She used to make medlar jelly, which is a lovely colour and nice with meat or on bread and butter

And she made a pie with the pulp which I wasn’t keen on

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yes in the YT they said they have to look rotten to be ripe .Id never heard of them before.They can be grown in UK ,the garden they were in was in Dorset . So not a hot country .
@Maree your Granny knew what she was doing , Not many now days would make anything .

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She’d been in service in a big house as cook and housekeeper, Upstairs Downstairs, Mrs Bridges style!

Born in Queen Victoria’s time :man_guard:

You sometimes get medlars at the farmers market and I buy a few for old times sake and do jelly

It’s a beautiful, clear bronze/orange colour and if I do it wrong and mine comes out cloudy, I think of granny telling me off!

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Lovely memories of your Granny , :smiley:

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They look like Pomegranites with all those little pips inside, don’t they?
Never had a Medlar, but used to have Pomegranites as a kid.

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yes @Mups thats what I thought when I saw the photo of them…
This is what I found on Google

Eliza, your photo shows them as being smaller than I imagined.
Don’t think I fancy one if you’ve got to wait till they’re nearly rotten though. :grinning:

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I make a lot of jams and jelly’s Medlar jam is delicious on toast …it’s more like jelly keeps well up to a year .