Vegetable Growing 2024

@CarolineL They don't taste of anything until they are bletted or "cooked". When they are bletted they taste like a mix of apple/pear puree but you need a lot to get any "afters". Making medlar jelly is time consuming but produces a very pink jelly with a lovely fragrance. I have also made mebrillo which is a Spanish "cheese". This hardens and can be kept for years in parchment paper/cling film and in a air tight container. It is sliced up and used with cheeses/ham. Again a lovely colour and fragrance.
When ever we see a medlar tree they are always "falling" over and ours is just the same. Don't know why they lean.

 

Hmm thanks @Loofah and @On the Levels
The medlar strikes me as a bit of hard work for relatively small reward - particularly as I have apples and figs anyway! I think I'm going to move it and the quince to somewhere else at the bottom of the garden.
Btw I found another label by the quince and it's "anger" variety - which apparently is nothing special and use as root stock! Hmmm

 

I've found a medlar tree and a quince tree in the park, there are no quinces left on the quince tree, but nobody touches the medlar.
Someone obviously likes black mulberries as they all seemed to disappear fast this year.

 

@pete your local park seems to have quite a range of trees!

 

It does, I'd like to see many more unusual or different types of trees, but the the "We must plant only native species," crowd always seems to mostly get their way these days.
It's a town park not the open countryside after all.

 

Yes, along with "rewilding" - brambles anyone?

 

@CarolineL maybe the quince you have is "Vranja" which is often mispelt. It is worth growing but I agree the medlar can be so much more time consuming unless you have neighbours like we do who are so pleased to have them.

 

Hi @On the Levels , no it was a printed label, and definitely not Vranja. A non-gardening friend sent me the medlar and quince as a birthday gift from a company that sends "fixed combinations". Their website didn't say the varieties and when I phoned them they hadn't the foggiest. According to another site "angers" is rather vigorous and best considered for hedging

 

Picked some Blenheim orange apples yesterday. Great size and smell wonderful.

 

I've got one of those but it always gets watercore and the apples don't store well as a result.

 

Symptomatic of calcium deficiency, maybe consider application of lime if appropriate. Commercially, speciallised fertilisers combining phosphates and calcium are used.

 

In china they pay more for watercore apples because theyre supposedly sweeter export business?

 

I'll be a millionaire!

 

First leeks of the season and a nice selection of beetroot picked today

 

We "found" 7 more quinces that were hiding in the foliage. Great sizes. Picked some salads from the polytunnel as well as some leeks outdoors.