Our only medlar fruit

Last year we had a lot of medlar fruit on our small garden tree, and then this spring it had a huge spurt of growth. I must own up to pruned the tree at the completely wrong time, so I'm not surprised that there is only this one fruit on the whole tree this autumn.

But it is a fine example of a medlar, which I regard as a wonderful addition to any garden. The old farm where I grew up had very little land left which included a small apple and rather worn out orchard with one very old medlar tree. I always loved watching it growing through the year and the amazing gift of its fruit which comes late on in autumn.

Soon after we moved here here in 2003 I found a small medlar tree for sale and planted it without any idea how long it would take to fruit.  In fact it produced a few fruits the very next year.

The sun popped out between scudding clouds at lunchtime, so I went out to record the medlar while I could.  some years the fruit disappear over night, and I blame that on deer which wait for the moment the fruit becomes edible. At the moment this one is rock hard and usually they have to be picked to allow them to 'blet' which I gather is the old term for the process and time taken to soften the fruit. I may pick this one, which is the size pf a small/medium apple, and bring it into the cabin so that I can watch that transformation. Once medlars are 'bletted' they are ready to be processed and consumed, usually as jam.