Can you eat medlars? | Harvest information

Anyone who loves exotic fruit does not necessarily have to fly it in from distant countries. It is better to try little-known fruits such as the medlar – this not only has a positive effect on the CO2 balance, because the hardy medlar tree grows easily in the home garden. The small, orange-brown fruits were widespread until a few decades ago. We show how you can harvest and process Mespilus germanica. But can you also eat medlars raw?

Medlars – an almost forgotten fruit

Until a few decades ago, the medlar tree or shrub (lat. Mespilus germanica) could still be found in many self-sufficient gardens. Our great-grandmothers liked to make jelly, jam, juice or liqueur from the small fruits, which were almost brown when ripe – not only because the fruit was considered particularly healthy, but also because the fruit gels well due to the high pectin content and also for a ensure better shelf life of mixed products.

Medlars belong to the rose family and are closely related to the pear (lat. Amelanchier ovalis), which is also valued (and probably better known) as a wild fruit in this country. The small tree or shrub is well suited for planting in small gardens, as it remains quite compact with a growth height of between two and five meters. If you don’t want to plant such a plant in your garden right away, but would rather try the fruits first, collect them in public plantations between November and March.

More information about Mespilus germanica:

  • already known and very popular fruit in the Middle Ages
  • was only recently forgotten
  • Reason probably the low suitability for industrial cultivation and processing
  • very small fruits: wild forms between two and three centimeters in diameter
  • Cultivated medlars reach fruits around six to seven centimeters in size
  • orange-brown in colour, mottled with brown or brown when ripe
  • slightly reminiscent of apricots in appearance
Note: Many people confuse the edible loquat with the white-berry mistletoe (lat. Viscum album), which is often found parasitically in and on trees in some areas. This is best known as an ornament during the Christmas season and for the custom of kissing under a hung mistletoe. The small berries of the mistletoe, on the other hand, are highly poisonous and therefore not edible.

taste and ingredients

The taste and consistency of the medlar fruits initially take some getting used to for our modern palate, which is used to sweet cultivated fruits:

  • initially hard, inedible pulp
  • contains astringent tannins
  • these cause the oral mucosa to contract
  • Ripens only after a longer period of frost
  • Fruit soft and only now suitable for eating
  • Taste sweet-sour, tart
  • slightly nutty note
  • often slightly mealy due to the high starch content

Under no circumstances should you eat medlars before a strong frost: they are not poisonous then, but inedible and cause the mucous membranes of the mouth to contract uncomfortably. The tannins responsible for this are only broken down by severe frost and the pulp takes on a sweet-sour, tart aroma. This results from the high proportion of vitamin C, which makes the fruit so healthy, especially in the winter months. Furthermore, medlars contain a lot of potassium with around 250 milligrams per 100 grams of pulp.

Harvest and time of harvest

As a rule, medlars are already ready for harvest between the beginning of November and the beginning of December, provided that severe frost occurs at this time. On the other hand, if the weather is too mild, you can safely leave the fruits hanging on the bush until January or February and wait for the cold. Birds too – blackbirds, for example, love medlars – wait until the pulp has become buttery soft and the aroma has become sweeter. If you don’t want to wait that long, harvest the unripe fruit and put them in the freezer for half a day. Then let them ripen for a few days, as freezing them will make them soft but not yet sweet enough. Ripe fruits can be recognized by their rust-red color.

Note: Ripe medlars – in contrast to still hard ones – do not keep very long. You should consume them within two to three days. Hard fruits, on the other hand, can be stored for up to 14 days.

processing and preservation

You can either eat the ripe fruits of Mespilus germanica fresh and raw from the tree or preserve them by boiling them down. Medlars are very suitable for jams, jellies, liqueurs or juices. Use them either pure – that way the flavor comes out better – or mixed with other fruits. Apples, pears or quinces are particularly suitable for this purpose.

To eat medlars raw, you should remove the furry skin and the seeds inside the fruit. The easiest way is to simply scoop the fruit out like a kiwi. Proceed as follows:

  • Remove the flower head.
  • This works best when the fruit is still frozen.
  • Carefully score the skin with a sharp knife.
  • Now pull them off.
  • Leave the skin on the fruit and cut it in half.
  • Remove the seeds with a spoon.
  • Scoop out the pulp.

However, if the pulp is to be processed into jam etc., be sure to remove the blossom base, skin and seeds. Incidentally, the latter have to be laboriously picked out, since the somewhat sticky consistency of the ripe fruit makes it difficult to use aids such as Lotte liquor or a sieve. Use

for preserving gelling sugar in a ratio of 1:1. For loquat jelly, squeeze out the juice and use about 750 milliliters of juice per pack of preserving sugar (500 grams).

The riper the fruit, the sweeter the end result will be. By the way, you can recognize putrid medlars by their sour smell of must. Please do not use these fruits anymore, but dispose of them. Good medlars are more reminiscent of pears in their sweet scent.

Note: The fruits of the native German medlar (lat. Mespilus germanica) are not available in supermarkets and are only very rarely available at weekly markets. Instead, you will often find imported medlar fruits in the trade, which, however, come from the Japanese loquat (lat. Eriobotrya japonica). These resemble ‘our’ medlars in appearance and taste, but are a little sweeter and not quite as tart. However, the corresponding tree does not grow in this country.

Kira Bellingham

I'm a homes writer and editor with more than 20 years' experience in publishing. I have worked across many titles, including Ideal Home and, of course, Homes & Gardens. My day job is as Chief Group Sub Editor across the homes and interiors titles in the group. This has given me broad experience in interiors advice on just about every subject. I'm obsessed with interiors and delighted to be part of the Homes & Gardens team.

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