tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post1459636682048796650..comments2023-10-31T15:39:09.651+01:00Comments on box elder: Medlar update.Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-62792371042770198512011-12-07T18:12:05.977+01:002011-12-07T18:12:05.977+01:00I like to hear that Project Medlar is unfolding in...I like to hear that Project Medlar is unfolding in good order. I was also unfamiliar with them and glad to know more. It makes me think of persimmons in the US midwest and south. These (not Japanese fuyus that are eaten out of hand) are the ones that need to freeze before they are edible. http://www.klru.org/ctg/resource/Article/Preparing_Persimmons_for_Freezing_or_for_Cooking/Nimblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16426446791363667887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-68150291458704319632011-12-07T12:49:08.874+01:002011-12-07T12:49:08.874+01:00LdP - Oh well if you like it keep it by all means!...LdP - Oh well if you like it keep it by all means! You see this is why people make little smiley emoticons. I checked it and it really isn't considered pejorative. Gros câlin!Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-61672486011330801822011-12-07T07:46:43.623+01:002011-12-07T07:46:43.623+01:00Ohmigosh did you imagine my use of "inveigler...Ohmigosh did you imagine my use of "inveigler" to be teasing? Oh, come friendly asp. Most I close down another blog?<br /><br />I was delighted by the word, and here's why. On the social acceptance scale journalists are rated slightly above whorehouse keepers and slightly below estate agents. We glory in inverted labels, hence "hack" and "muck-raking". In this context I was honoured to have attracted a new, slightly more exotic word that described my trade and my only real professional qualifications: curiosity and an ability to ask questions. By all means take it back if it makes you uneasy (oh how gun-shy I am these days) but don't apologise.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-25506122405860818532011-12-06T22:34:06.137+01:002011-12-06T22:34:06.137+01:00First met in Shakespeare, best et* on Box Elder. I...First met in Shakespeare, best et* on Box Elder. If I never track one down in person, I do have a positive idea of their taste now!<br /><br />*Southern for eatenJuliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02381204473168533313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-14497869647168018742011-12-06T19:36:46.704+01:002011-12-06T19:36:46.704+01:00Thanks for your enthusiastic responses, I do rathe...Thanks for your enthusiastic responses, I do rather feel I post about medlars rather a lot.<br /><br />Isabelle - Shakespeare was rather keen on them, of course.<br /><br />PC - I wouldn't vouch for the state of them on arrival if I posted them!<br /><br />Dale - they are rather luscious!<br /><br />Murr - nice to see you here. 'What is the taste...' sounds faintly koanic!<br /><br />Eb - Apparently, when they grow in more southerly places they ripen normally, so you might yet find them down your way.<br /><br />LdP - I'd kind of like to take back 'inveigling', only of course it's not really possible to take things back. 'Cajoling' is nicer, or the French 'câliner' has followed an interesting path... No, I have not achieved and will not now the level of automatic fluency you credit me with, and it really depends on the situation and my comfort and, as you say, confidence within it. I am inarticulate and tongue-tied at my drawing class. I am also noticing how quickly my French going rusty with using it less at work. Tom's approval of my engagement in chitchat rather depends on how much it is interfering with such things as getting around the shop or out of the doctor's surgery, or the eating of dinner. As it probably would in English.<br /><br />Clive - that's interesting that they can be fruiting in such a short time after planting, I assumed they'd be one of those things that had to be ancient and well-established, like mulberries. They are beautiful little trees, the flowers are splendid as is the foliage, especially in autumn, and the shape is graceful. They certainly excite curiosity in some people, like your Argentine posty!<br /><br />HHB - the real medlar expert is Anna at medlar comfits, http://medlarcomfits.blogspot.com/<br />who is in Australia, so they must exist there!<br /><br />Dave - good, nice to see you!<br /><br />Crow - I seek to educate as well as to please!<br /><br />Plutarch - that was my old friend at Twisted Rib who quoted Lawrence, very amusingly deprecatingly! I felt sure Baudelaire should have written about them too, but could find no link between his name and the French word 'néfle', though stuff about rotten carcases and 'strange music of decomposition' did come up. In fact though, the bletted state is at a delicate point between true decay and ordinary ripeness, but the link between the word 'morbid' in English and its sense in Italian is interesting - I always think it's funny that amaretti biscuits are described as 'morbidi'!Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-3843954602273227252011-12-06T17:54:08.652+01:002011-12-06T17:54:08.652+01:00Let me aplogise in advance if you or someone else ...Let me aplogise in advance if you or someone else has already mentioned it here. I checked back to your previous medlar account, just in case and could't find it, so here is D H Lawrence on medlars: "Wineskins of brown morbidity, autumnal excrementa" giving off an "exquisite odour of leave taking."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-50305454777890558132011-12-06T15:18:04.304+01:002011-12-06T15:18:04.304+01:00One of the things I like so much about blogs is le...One of the things I like so much about blogs is learning new things. I've not heard of nor seen medlars before visiting here. An interesting fruit, and interesting post. Thank you, Lucy.The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04846997590157958766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-1861036574987686832011-12-06T13:02:02.355+01:002011-12-06T13:02:02.355+01:00You've got me salivating.You've got me salivating.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-33557058140456651872011-12-06T11:11:47.376+01:002011-12-06T11:11:47.376+01:00They sound wonderful. Have never tried them, but t...They sound wonderful. Have never tried them, but thanks to you I can imagine!herhimnbrynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01182397064631016552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-72161605977260713652011-12-06T09:27:44.686+01:002011-12-06T09:27:44.686+01:00Even as I write we have an earthenware plate of bl...Even as I write we have an earthenware plate of bletted medlars sitting on the slate dairy shelf of our larder. We planted the little tree four years ago and already it's giving up a generous crop. A few weeks ago our Argentine postman asked me about the tree... he'd heard we had a medlar tree and had always wanted to see one... and so I took him to the back orchard to show him. He went away with a small box of them, and later returned with a jar of his own crab-apple jelly for us. It's a brave little tree. It's had two grim winters to contend with while in its early years, and yet it thrives.Clive Hicks-Jenkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00573698513351018726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-56413734421695752682011-12-06T08:21:46.631+01:002011-12-06T08:21:46.631+01:00The Medlar Request (a new novel by Ludlum or one o...The Medlar Request (a new novel by Ludlum or one of his clones). Though I never took it quite that far, I was constantly looking for conversational opportunities in France, often to the startlement of those I spoke to. No doubt they saw me as an inveigler. Does Tom approve? Mrs LdP didn't - it was counter to the whole of her SE England upbringing and she would go away into a corner and shrivel. The great thing is one only needs confidence, not good French, because by making these gestures one is entering the House of Correction. I suspect this sort of thing has lost its charm for you because you are no longer conscious of speaking a foreign language. Luckily I have ignorance and incompetence on my side.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-51299155050314864512011-12-06T08:21:09.996+01:002011-12-06T08:21:09.996+01:00mmm - mouth-watering description. I've never t...mmm - mouth-watering description. I've never tasted them.earlybirdhttp://mangetoutetc.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-82996462755601714612011-12-06T05:15:55.489+01:002011-12-06T05:15:55.489+01:00The Medlars are bletting! The Medlars are bletting...The Medlars are bletting! The Medlars are bletting! I have now gone back in time to a place I don't know, but I'm being warned about something. What IS the taste of a fruit you've never met?Murr Brewsterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03422638986410813520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-33519776821376348672011-12-06T02:31:33.045+01:002011-12-06T02:31:33.045+01:00:-) They do sound wonderful.:-) They do sound wonderful.Dalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14523194846272870013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-90684045625726253722011-12-06T01:55:49.792+01:002011-12-06T01:55:49.792+01:00"something of dates, something of apple butte..."something of dates, something of apple butter, something of spices"<br /><br />mmm, sounds delicious. sadly, i haven't ever heard of them, never mind seen them, before your blog. can you save me a couple, please?the polish chickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09929281676865641560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-67514278849815642082011-12-05T23:54:30.543+01:002011-12-05T23:54:30.543+01:00Very interesting. I've heard about rotten medl...Very interesting. I've heard about rotten medlars but never seen one.Pam https://www.blogger.com/profile/12641269043817163165noreply@blogger.com