A Highly Anticipated Medlar Update

Do you remember a few weeks ago, I wrote about finding a medlar tree in my local National Trust garden? It was the talk of the town, and I mentioned then that I was hoping to get my hands on a batch of medlar fruits so I could have a go at bletting them. Here’s a reminder:

The fruit will not be ready to harvest until late October or early November, but at this point they will still be too hard, sour and green to eat. To make them edible, they must then be ‘bletted’ - which is essentially a snazzy word for a controlled rot. Over the course of two to three weeks, the fruit turns soft and purplish-brown, and the flavour becomes sweeter, similar to a toffee apple.