Consider... the medlar.

I've been meaning to mention the medlar for some time now. i got to try one and i am not sure i had ever heard of one before. It is a tree-grown fruit. Temperate zone, well at least not tropical. I think it was more popular long ago, like a 100 years ago or more. before we could have apples delivered everywhere all year round.




i can sorta see why this fruit fell out of fashion. like persimmons, it is meant to be eaten it is pretty overripe and mushy. there is a special word for this term...ah, "bletting" decaying and fermenting.
anyway, despite its possible decaying or fermenting, i didn't think the medlar was particularly sweet or sour. I described it as bland applesauce. so it was a leather outside, mushy inside with a few large flat seeds (kind like curved wooden dimes).

so i don't know what people used this fruit for traditionally? just plain? in a pie? it would be a pain to prepare a bunch as an ingredient, unless you just smashed a bunch in a bucket and put it through a sieve to get the mush away from the seeds and skins.

so that is the medlar, plucked from history.