Don't Meddle With the Medlars!

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I was thinking idly of fruit which could be described as 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly' (don't ask me why! It's just one of those odd non-sequitur things!). The 'good' might apply to many fruit, of course, and the 'ugly' obviously refers to that member of the citrus family called the Ugli, but what of the 'bad'? There are durians (which I have never tasted but, I gather, smell like the worst outhouse, dunny or public toilets but are said to taste delicious) and there are some fruits which would kill you if you ate them! There is one fruit, however, which is only edible when it is brown and rotten but is then (by some) regarded as delicious. Have you ever eaten a medlar? I have done so once as a child, I think, and I wasn't very impressed, though my father said it was a delicacy. My mother, however, used to make jelly from them and that was delicious. The medlar is a small tree which is quite closely related to the hawthorn but the fruits are larger and russet brown. When ready to harvest, the fruit is very hard and tart and quite inedible but if it is 'bletted' - that is, stored for a month or two until the flesh turns brown and soft (in an apple, you'd call it rotten!) - it loses its tartness and becomes sweet and edible with a spoon. I think that, when the season comes round, I must look for and try meddling with medlars again! If I don't like them, I can always turn them into jelly.