Medlar Mespilus germanica

Described by the Greek botanist Theophrastrus, over 2000 years ago, the Medlar was once widely cultivated in Tudor, England. Parkinson in 1627 spoke "of the pleasant sweetness of the fruit when mellow". But today they are nowhere available in shops or markets and impossible to find except in a few private gardens. This should change.

The Medlar is a fascinating fruit. Botanically somewhere between a pear and a hawthorn, it blossoms in solitary fashion in May at the end of the shoots of the same year's growth. The spring flowers are large, white fading in pink as they age. The unique dark green brown fruit looks somewhat like a small crabapple which forms without stem at the end of the shoot and becomes the half of a sphere with the petals arranged around the edge of the flattish top.

The decorative fruit is picked after a hard frost. The flesh is then still hard, green and austere and must be kept on a dry cool shelf until the pulp softens and mellows when it turns a light brown. This process is known as "bletting". The pulp has then a distinctive pleasantly acidulous flavor.

It makes a beautiful small tree that fruits early, a 3-year-old tree producing a good crop. It has curious branches forming sharp-angled elbows. The leaves are large luxuriantly green and downy and turn beautifully red in the fall. Easy to grow, hardy, not particular as to soil or culture, it can be grown for its eye-catching ornamental value alone.

But it has long been regarded as a dessert fruit for connoisseurs. Prof. Saintsbury in his classic book on wines, "Notes on a Cellar", declared that "the one fruit which seems to me to go best with all wine, from hock to sherry and from claret to port, is the Medlar - an admirable and distinguished thing in itself, and a worthy mate for the best of liquors".

Francesca Greensack in her fascinating book "Forgotten Fruit" said, "the lingering, slightly sweet, slightly winey flavor makes the Medlar seem like a natural comfit". She also mentioned "roasting them with butter and cloves as a traditional winter dessert" and recommends jelly made from them "as an accompaniment to game".

This "fruit de fantaisie" as the Frenchman Duhamel called it, should be restored to the fruit garden. It is of intriguing interest to the eye and palate alike as it stands unique among the fruits of the world.

reprinted from Southmeadow fruit farm.

Winnetka Farms has exclusive access to an orchard of this rare fruit and will bring the fruit to market this week. We gathered a group of friends and headed for the hills to pick the fruit. The two day adventure was dubbed "Medlar Fest" by the group which included Winnetka Farms, Erik Knudsen and Kelly Coyne of Homegrown Evolution, Artist and cookbook author Joseph Shuldiner and Graham Keegan.

The fruit is as unusual as it is delicious, after the first good frost the fruit begins to blet turning from hard and inedible to a soft pudding like texture of a warm brown color. The group described the taste in various ways, from "apple butter", raisin, "rum" and a hint of spice. However the taste is perceived it is quite delicious and the historic nature of the Medlar makes it all the more special for those lucky enough to eat this wonderful fruit.