15 Forgotten Fruits Medieval Farmers Grew That NEED to Come Back - YouTube
Great video. I never heard of most of them.
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List of fruits in video:
- medlar
- sorb apple
- service tree
- cornelian cherry
- barberry
- loquats/nespoli
- jujube
- mulberry
- Saskatoon berry
- rowan
- sloe berry
- chequers (from the wild service tree)
- hackberry
- mespilus
- crabapple
Was able to find posts about all of these, nice work forum!
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Medlars need to be bletted right? Never seen quince either now that I think about it.
Some on that list are grown by plenty of people, some others I’d never heard of
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Actually, not a very good video.
There are duplicates and confusion and what else…
Medlar = Mespilus; shown as two different fruits
also
Sorb apple (fruit of Sorbus domestica, Sorbus aucuparia, Sorbus torminalis etc.) as different from service tree (Sorbus domestica or Sorbus torminalis); under “service tree” the video first shows S. domestica, then S. aria (Aria edulis or similar?), then S. torminalis (Torminalis glaberrima);
and then as a separate fruit - “rowan”, which is Sorbus aucuparia, and then “chequers” which is again Sorbus torminalis…
And many of these are not forgotten…
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A local produce place had Quince from California around mid-October this year. I think they start becoming available in September.
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I had quince ages ago, maybe early 1990s. Then they stopped selling it.
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When they say forgotten, they are talking about sold in markets. (I think.) I had never heard of many of them, so it was an eye opener to me.
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The medlar is a type of fruit that is typically described as needing to “blet” (a term that refers to a state of softness and decay, not necessarily in the same sense as “rotten”) before it’s edible.
I never heard of the term, had to look it up. Video said they look rotten when they are ready.
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So, have any of the critics eaten a medlar? What did you think of it?
It’s an interesting and unique flavor and it does need to blet.
I would put it in the category of fruit trees that are only worth growing for their uniqueness and low labor requirement.
Its main advantage is that it’s ready to eat in December. This means that any pests that might have attacked it earlier in the season are no longer active.
Medlars don’t taste bad like some mainstream quince or Cornelian cherry varieties can but I don’t think anyone would put them ahead of a really good apple or pear that you can eat in early winter.
Some varieties have sizeable seeds, which combined with the need to blet makes them mildly annoying to eat. I’m sure there are much better modern cultivars now but in my case it wasn’t worth the space.
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My ancestors cultivated this tree and ate its fruit in winter, just like any other fruit they stored (apples, pears, walnuts, and hazelnuts). It has a pleasant flavor, little pulp, and large seeds, but we children loved eating it on cold, rainy afternoons. I keep a couple of trees of this variety for sentimental reasons, but it’s becoming less common in villages.
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Just saw a video from Greg Alder and he was visiting someone named Jacque from SoCal somewhere by San Diego and he grows it. They said it was like eating applesauce. It looked pretty good. Greg’s channel if anyone wants to watch it. https://www.youtube.com/@gregalderdotcom
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To anyone growing medlar, does it get heavy deer pressure?
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Yes, deer will defoliate it if given the chance.
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Medlars… suffer from rust and fire blight…
So if you are in the south east like me you probably never get a crop without some type of spray program.
Service, serviceberry, Saskatoon… suffer horribly from rust here… just as they get near ripening they get covered in rust (red spikes).
I have wild serviceberry all around my fields… but have never found a ripe one.
TNHunter
I have grown medlars since the 90’s and am definitely the only one in my family that will eat them ha ha ha. Nottingham was the first one I started growing and probably the best to me that I still grow. This year I grafted Iranian Medlar and another one named Druschl. Had Breda Giant but lost it.
I put them out at our UPic but for the most they are not in high demand. Just something cool to me to grow.
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Well, thats disappointing. I might as well try to grow persimmons too in that case.
King Henry III did not like medlar. He had Apples planted in his courtyard, specifically White Winter Pearmain.
I hate when people compare bletting to rotting. Technically we even blet bananas before eating them. Ever notice how just before they’re ripe, bananas are firm and a bit astringent? Then after sitting a while they soften, sweeten and lose their astringency… That is bletting. Same thing as medlars. They start hard and astringent. Then after sitting a while they soften, sweeten and lose their astringency. It’s NOT rot or anything like rot.
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