Just spend a satisfying half an hour up a ladder in my medlar tree picking the rather curious fruits. Picked over 70 from a 6 year old tree - not bad I think, and I haven't been able to reach the ones at the very top - my darling up a long ladder me thinks. They will now spend a month in trays in the shed to blet before becoming medlar jelly to give away as Chrissy pressies.
very envious EJ, would love to have medlars bletting in the shed ::) ;D
Mum brought me an asian pear tree which I am really looking forward to growing. One of my fave hard fruits! Now all I need is a quince tree and a peach and I am about done. Wish my cobnuts would nut and my fig tree would fig....relocation relocation relocation me thinks.
way off thread :P
which asian pear are you getting EJ and which pollinator?
I have ordered a Quince this year ;D
I really should move my quince,the poor thing is strangled out by hedgerow. Cob nuts nut OK-(or so the squirrels tell me). I`ve started some severe pruning of the fig-it`s taking over the greenhouse.
I`ve never grown a medlar but on the slightly less usual side I can recommend a mulberry.
I don't know which asian pear Sarah, and I hoped ( she hopes) that my three apples, and the neighbouring apples and pears will provide pollination enough. Anyhow, I'm sure I will have a couple of years to discover what is needed and plant accordingly.
My fig is in a pot, and I have decided to plant it against a trellis in the garden and train it as a fan. The cob is amongst the shrubs in the border and it has never gotten taller than 6 foot. The poor thing hasn't had an easy life and I hoped now it was in a permanent home it might thrive. Out into the sun me thinks.
I fancy a mulberry, but aren't they huge plants? Not really the room in the garden, mind you, who needs lawn?
Despite the song Mulberries are trees not bushes. There's one I used to walk past in central London that has to be 40ft tall with a spread not far off the same. That would cover my neighbour's garden as well as mine! That said I wish I did have the room because they are lovely trees.
Perhaps you can prune them heavily to keep them manageable?
All this talk of trees, fruit and nut, makes me REALLY wish I had a bigger garden. I have a fig (planted in the ground in a plastic dustbin) it did really well this year as did the patio pear (also now in the ground).Not much room for more as BW wont sacrifice any more lawn.
A friend gave me a walnut tree, now about 4ft high, but I fear I wont see any fruit as it is slow growing and we will have moved by the time there are nuts!
At Barnsdale Gardens they have an overgrown mulberry tree. Last year they chopped the top off, next year they're going to chop the sides off. So if they can do it, you can! 8)
They (Mulberries) take a long time to get that big.... I've had mine about a decade and it is still not any real size, think unpruned forsythia after two years, the fruit are ace though... they can live up to 500 years so plant it and let it be someone elses problem...
;D
Deb P has a medlar at home... she gave me some but they didn't blet well so still undecided... think they need leaving longer on the tree.
::)
SS has tasted my fruit-Mulberry that is :P
Well, if anyone wants the hundreds on our Medlar they are welcome, even bletted the taste is disgusting!
Blet, bletting - it's a whole different language ??? ??? ???
Quote from: saddad on October 30, 2006, 19:49:22
Deb P has a medlar at home... she gave me some but they didn't blet well so still undecided... think they need leaving longer on the tree.
::)
Oh dear!
Plenty left on the tree, I'll give you another bagfull.
I love my medlar tree, very graceful weeping habit, lovely large blossom. The fruits are a bit of an aquired taste, sort of toffeapplish/caramel, OH has a sweet tooth and loves them when very soft.
I only use mine to make jelly as my grandad and mum think it is amazing instead of apple sauce with pork. My tree doesn't produce as much as perhaps it could because I have it trained roughly like a fan to provide an extension of our fence so we are not overlooked - but I don't want it shading the already shadey beds. It works well, does okay being pruned, has lovely big leaves, fab autumn colour, wonderful big white flowers and the fruits might not be to everyones taste, but they look so odd I just love them!
I don't like walnuts so have never thought of growing one. What do mulberries taste like?
My medlars! ;D
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a364/Mrsava/medlars-1.jpg)
They even look good EJ
Thanks for the offer Deb P I'd like that...
;D
Wow e.j.that is a nice crop,medlars they are called,we call them mispel,i have also a tree in the garden.In holland we got a proverb with goes like zo rot als een mispel,it means something like rotten as a medlar.Here in holland the pick medlars just after the first frost,they say the medlar must be ripper than ripe almost rotten.
what a lovely fruit - do you know their ancient common name EJ? rather too descriptive of the calyx :-[
HELP !!! EJ have just been given whole cardboard box full of medlars by my sisters neighbour in Hampshire :o :o :o
Please would you post the instructions for ... bletting ... and jelly making not at all sure how to treat these guys !! :-\
To blett I leave them in a tray in the shed, or at the moment, in the conservatory, until they go dark brown and start to go soft. I don't follow a published recipe but really made it up as I went along, and it worked and suited my lot, so it is how I do it.
I put the medlars into a big pan along with about 6 or so large cooking apples - more depending on the quantity of medlars, and a chopped up lemon, then I just about cover the fruits with water and slowely bring up to a boil. I turn down to a simmer and cook gently for up to an hour, then I go in with my potato masher and give them all a really good beating to get max flavour and juices released. The resulting mooosh is firstly seived to get rid of the bulk of the pulp, then through a jelly bag to give you a amber coloured liquid. You could now do the technical setting test (check with JennyM as I can't remember how to do it), or use powder pectin, or like me, keep your fingers crossed.
I measure the liquid and for every pint of liquid, I use a pound of sugar. Gently heat the liquid, then add the sugar and stir constanly until completely dissolved. Bring up to a rolling boil, stirring periodically, and keep boiling until it reaches setting point on your thermometer, (or do the set test on a cold saucer, pushing the liquid with your finger, and if it wrinkles, you have a set). I then bottle in sterile warm jars, seal and label when cold.
As I said, this isn't a published recipe that I am aware off - just made it up as I went along. The apples and lemon seems to provide enough pectin to produce a good set. The more rotten the medlars, apparently the better the flavour, but I need the jelly for Christmas pressies, and with time becoming short the closer Chrissy gets, I will be making mine at the start of December come what may.
Hope this helps. ;D
Quote from: EJ - Emma Jane on November 05, 2006, 22:49:29
The resulting mooosh is firstly seived to get rid of the bulk of the pulp
try a passata machine if you have one? - tried earlier this year, turns mooosh into apple sauce minus pips and skin :)
Brilliant, thank you for the instructions EJ ... I shall give it a whirl ;)
... next job is to go clear away spuds that were drying in the garage, to make way for the medlars ;D
Quote from: EJ - Emma Jane on October 30, 2006, 13:34:29
... Picked over 70 from a 6 year old tree - not bad I think, ..
Not bad at all! was it a couple of years old when you got it? and where was it sourced from? quite fancy one and would like to know a reliable source.
It was a wee twig when I got it, probably 2 years old, and now I am desperately trying to think where we get it from..... it wouldn't have been from a specialist nursery, I have a feeling it was from somewhere like Marshalls. I don't know much about their likes and dislikes, but what I know is Jen, you have similar soil to me, good old London clay, and the Medlar seems to love it! I picked another 2 dozen fruits from it on Monday by standing dangerously on my step ladder and wielding a childs long handled fishing net around the tree to grab them or knock them off! There are still more but they are out of my reach. Hopefully they will fall on my side of the fence and I will be able to gather them up and add to the growing pile!
Quote from: jennym on November 07, 2006, 15:22:05
Quote from: EJ - Emma Jane on October 30, 2006, 13:34:29
... ..
Not bad at all! was it a couple of years old when you got it? and where was it sourced from? quite fancy one and would like to know a reliable source.
I purchased mine from Deacons, variety 'Nottingham', received a well shaped half standard that has grown into a superb small tree. I can't remember exactly, but I think it was a two year old tree when I bought it.
Interestingly, the fruit has almost doubled in size as well as yield in the past three years, some almost fill my palm; anyone else noticed bigger fruits? My tree is about 11 years old now.
What height and spread do they reach?
Mine is about 10' high, 15' wide. They have quite an attractve slightly weeping habit.
Mum says Ken Muirs or Bakkers. Yup, my fruit seems to be getting bigger and bigger, the size of small apples now! Mine is trained more of a fan, but yes, it does have a slightly weeping habit. I love it! And yes, mine is also a 'Nottingham'.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm :) I love medlars!
I make a fruit sauce out of medlars, quinces, cooking apples and red wine to have with roast lamb.
The manager of the 'rather posh' local garden centre delivered some more fruit trees to my allotment yesterday and he had to 'admit' (it was very hard for him ....) that he'd never tasted a medlar!
I gave him a carrier bag full to take back to the shop for a 'show and tell' session with his staff ;D He's getting me a walnut tree for nowt to say thanks for the medlars and showing him round the allotment site!
We've just purchased a Medlar for the community area on our allotment site; last week we went to a nursery to collect some ordered heritage apple trees and happened to see a Medlar tree, complete with fruit, as part of another customer's order. We asked if they had more available and we were able to purchase a four year old tree, with several fruits on.
Each fruit has four or five 'stones' and we're planning on sowing these and hopefully get them to germinate.