The medlar is a small, brown, apple-like fruit that belongs to the rose family and grows on a spreading deciduous tree known botanically as Mespilus germanica. What makes it unusual among fruits is that you can’t eat it straight off the tree. The fruit must first undergo a post-harvest softening process called “bletting” before it becomes palatable, which is one reason this once-common European fruit has largely faded from modern grocery stores and gardens.
What the Tree and Fruit Look Like
A medlar tree is a small, spreading tree or large shrub with oblong, leathery green leaves that turn yellow-brown in autumn. In late spring, it produces white cup-shaped flowers about 5 cm across. The fruit that follows is russet-brown, roughly the size of a golf ball, with a distinctive open end (called an open calyx) that gives it an unusual, slightly flattened appearance. The fruit reaches its final size by late September or October but isn’t ready to pick until late October or November, after the leaves have fallen.
How Bletting Works
When you pick a medlar off the tree, it’s rock-hard, extremely tannic, and essentially inedible. To become something you’d actually want to eat, the fruit needs to go through bletting, a controlled softening process that happens after harvest. You spread the picked fruit out in a cool, dry place (a garage shelf or a tray in a shed works well) and wait several weeks. Alternatively, you can leave the fruit on the tree through one or two hard frosts, where temperatures dip to around minus 3 to minus 4°C (24 to 26°F), which kickstarts the same process.
During bletting, an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase breaks down the fruit’s internal structure. This drives two key chemical changes: sugars increase while tannins decrease. The flesh turns from pale and firm to brown and soft, almost like the inside of an overripe banana. The fruit loses its green tint and becomes yielding to the touch. Although bletted fruit may look like it’s gone bad, it’s actually at its peak eating stage.
What Medlar Tastes Like
Bletted medlar has a flavor often compared to stewed apples, with notes of wine, dates, and caramel. The texture is smooth and paste-like, almost like thick apple butter. You eat it by scooping out the soft flesh with a spoon and discarding the skin and seeds. The taste is complex and sweet-tart, nothing like any common supermarket fruit, which is part of its appeal for people who seek it out.
Traditionally, medlar is used in jelly, preserves, and a thick paste called “medlar cheese” (similar to quince paste). To make purée for baking or desserts, you push the bletted fruit through a sieve to separate out the seeds and skin. The pulp works well in bar cookies paired with walnuts, or as a filling for tarts. Because medlar is naturally low in pectin, making jelly requires adding pectin or combining it with a high-pectin fruit.
A Fruit That Was Once as Common as Apples
The medlar’s history stretches back millennia. The first known written reference appears in a fragment of Greek poetry from the 7th century BC. By 800 AD, Charlemagne had included it on a list of plants that were mandatory in royal gardens. Over the following centuries, medlars became a staple of medieval monasteries, royal courtyards, and village greens across Europe. The fruit appears in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Henry VIII planted medlars at Hampton Court and sent large quantities to the King of France as gifts.
The fruit hit its peak popularity in the 1600s, when it was grown across England as commonly as apples, pears, and quince. Its decline came gradually, driven by the rise of faster-maturing, easier-to-eat fruits that didn’t require weeks of post-harvest preparation. Today, medlars are rare in commerce but maintain a loyal following among home gardeners and heritage fruit enthusiasts.
Nutritional Profile
Medlar packs roughly double the energy content of an apple, gram for gram, and its mineral content is about 50% higher than apple across key nutrients like potassium, calcium, and phosphorus. The fruit contains notable amounts of iron, magnesium, and vitamin C, though vitamin C levels vary significantly between cultivars, ranging from about 2.6 to 8.8 mg per 100 grams depending on the variety. It’s also rich in pectin, organic acids (malic, tartaric, and citric), and tannins, the last of which decrease as the fruit blets. As one of the few fruits available fresh in late autumn and early winter, medlar historically served as a seasonal source of nutrients when little else was ripening.
Traditional Medicinal Uses
In folk medicine traditions across Europe and the Middle East, medlar fruit, leaves, and bark were used to treat digestive complaints. Practitioners used them for intestinal inflammation, diarrhea, large intestine infections, and stomach bloating. A common preparation involved removing the skin and seeds from ripe fruit and mixing the pulp with a small amount of milk for gut-related ailments. The 17th-century English botanist Nicholas Culpeper wrote that medlar could help regulate heavy menstrual bleeding. These are historical uses, not clinically validated treatments, but they reflect how central the fruit once was in European daily life.
Growing a Medlar Tree
Medlar trees grow well in USDA hardiness zones 5 through 9, which covers most of the continental United States and comparable climates worldwide. They want full sun and any fertile, moist soil. The trees are self-fertile, so you only need one to get fruit, and they have relatively few pest or disease problems compared to apples and pears. A mature tree is also genuinely attractive in a garden, with its spreading canopy, spring flowers, and autumn color.
Several cultivars are widely available from specialty nurseries. “Nottingham” is considered one of the best-flavored varieties, though its fruit are small, only about 4 cm across. “Westerveld” produces larger fruit and is one of the best choices for making jelly. “Flanders Giant” has some of the largest fruit of any cultivar and is one of the few varieties recommended for eating raw. “Dutch” is a reliable, well-rounded option with fruit about 5 cm across. “Royal” is a more compact tree, better suited for smaller gardens.
Harvesting typically requires several picks from each tree, since the fruit don’t all ripen at once. The ideal time is after a hard frost in October or November, when the fruit are overripe on the branch but still firm enough to handle. From there, you blet them indoors for two to four weeks until they soften and darken.