Mespilus, 'Puciu Mol' medlar

  Mespilus germanica Variety description: 'Puciu Mol' is an old cultivar from Piedmont, Italy. It bears an abundant crop of 1 1/2" diameter fruit. Fine textured and sweet when fully ripe, these fruit are great for sauces and preserves. Medlars are close relatives of hawthorns and are native to southeastern coastal regions of the Mediterranean and southwestern Asia. Medlars have at least a thousand year long cultivation history over a wide region stretching from Iran to England. Charlemagne dictated that medlars be planted in all of his royal estates, while Shakespeare referenced the fruit is several of his plays. The odd shaped, green-brown fruit looks like a large crab apple with its bottom end open rather than spherical. The fruit should be picked after the first hard frost. At this point it will still be hard and unpleasant. In order to ripen or "blett" the fruit, it is stored in a cool, dry place until the pulp softens and turns a light brown. Ripe medlars are quite delicious, with