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Post by Weyland on Nov 22, 2010 21:17:31 GMT
Saw this tree in the grounds of a Dutch castle on Saturday. The lady in the tourist office said it was a mispel, and to by all means take one. I've looked it up since and it's a medlar in English. Anyone ever grown this ancient fruit, or eaten it? Apparently it makes good jelly, but you have to let it start to rot first. Shakespeare, as usual, knows all about it.  The tree.  The fruit.  The castle ('s-Heerenberg). |
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Post by housesparrow on Nov 22, 2010 21:35:14 GMT
Never heard of it I am happy to say. But things that make wonderful jelly/cordial/chutney/wine are (in my experience) the things that are of absoluely no use for anything else. Crab apple jelly....elderberry wine...elderflower cordial....sloe gin...any advance?
All just a relic of the days when we gathered Interesting Things from the Hedgerows and then spent hours wondering what on earth to do with the stuff.
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Post by Weyland on Nov 22, 2010 21:52:36 GMT
All just a relic of the days when we gathered Interesting Things from the Hedgerows and then spent hours wondering what on earth to do with the stuff. I wouldn't be at all surprised. Especially when it turns out that it has to be half-rotten to taste good. Sounds like somebody in the 13th century thought "Bloody starving, there's nothing in the house except that rotting fruit he still hasn't thrown out yet, it's four leagues to the villeins' market, and the broadband's down again. Oh well . . ." |
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Post by jean on Nov 22, 2010 22:31:47 GMT
Don't be so modern!
Medlars are declicious if you let them go brown and mushy - it's called bletting - and pretty well indedible if you don't.
And the common name for them that Shakespeare uses is self-explanatory when you look at one.
The last ones I found were in a hedgerow in France this year, though there's a tree in the garden of the Bishop's Palace in Wells that has yielded me a good crop in the past.
But that tree you've got there beats anything I've ever seen. You did take lots, didn't you?
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Post by everso on Nov 23, 2010 11:29:42 GMT
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Post by jean on Nov 23, 2010 12:00:11 GMT
From your link, ev:
'...it is a fruit which is now rarely appreciated except in certain areas, such as the north of Iran, across the central Balkans and in the Caucasus.'
So I expect Riot will soon be trying them deep-fried in batter, if she hasn't already.
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Post by Weyland on Nov 23, 2010 12:41:17 GMT
But that tree you've got there beats anything I've ever seen. You did take lots, didn't you? I might've known you'd be in on the medlar scam, Jean. Only got one, and Mrs YI has it. No doubt she'll be selling it in Amsterdam for a Taoiseach's ransom. There are two trees at the castle. That one is centuries old, the VVV lady said, but I doubt it. Here's the other one . . .  |
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Post by riotgrrl on Nov 23, 2010 12:54:24 GMT
From your link, ev: '...it is a fruit which is now rarely appreciated except in certain areas, such as the north of Iran, across the central Balkans and in the Caucasus.'So I expect Riot will soon be trying them deep-fried in batter, if she hasn't already. Fruit? That's like vegetables, innit? We don't eat them up here. |
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Post by aubrey on Nov 23, 2010 18:47:39 GMT
I'd heard of them, though I wouldn't have been able to say what they were. (My mother knew all about them, though.)
There's lots of things that are allowed to rot a bit before eating. Wine? Beef? Cheese?
What's that Asian fruit that stinks of rotting meat (I think)? Durian? Has anyone had it?
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Post by everso on Nov 23, 2010 19:44:11 GMT
I'd heard of them, though I wouldn't have been able to say what they were. (My mother knew all about them, though.) There's lots of things that are allowed to rot a bit before eating. Wine? Beef? Cheese? What's that Asian fruit that stinks of rotting meat (I think)? Durian? Has anyone had it? Makes you wonder why anybody would think of eating something that smelt of rotting meat. On the other hand, who would think of eating something (Parmesan cheese) that smells of baby sick?  |
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Post by aubrey on Nov 23, 2010 20:38:48 GMT
The first person who ate it. Like Mussels.
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Post by everso on Nov 23, 2010 23:51:44 GMT
Or liver.
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Post by Weyland on Nov 24, 2010 10:38:05 GMT
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Post by everso on Nov 24, 2010 12:56:38 GMT
(Trubbs, look away now) Well oysters are virtually alive when you eat them - or, at least, in their last death throes. The first person to eat them like that must have been damned hungry. They are gorgeous though. 
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Post by aubrey on Nov 24, 2010 17:57:31 GMT
There is a description of eating oysters in Kingsley Amis's last novel (I think) The Biographer's Moustache. They sound disgusting. I mean, I'm quite willing to believe you, but...
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Post by everso on Nov 24, 2010 18:59:04 GMT
No, really Aubs. They are delicious. I always eat them with my fingers crossed though, because you can so easily get food poisoning from them.
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Post by jean on Dec 6, 2010 9:04:03 GMT
Here's Nigel Slater on medlars, in yesterday's Observer magazine. (I've tried editing this to put in the spaces, but it won't let me!)
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Post by Weyland on Jan 17, 2011 16:13:36 GMT
Medlar jelly on The Food Programme just now. (Angela Hartnett, who has starred on MistressChef.)
~ ~ ~
Free Bonus Word Definition Department:
MISTRESS n. Between a mister and a mattress.
. . . I'll get me whites.
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Post by aubrey on Jan 17, 2011 18:01:36 GMT
Mods!!
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Post by riotgrrl on Jan 17, 2011 18:57:03 GMT
Wot?
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