Medlar harvest.
Medlars are the last fruit to ripen in early to mid November. They have to stay on the tree until they turn brown and start to decay. Otherwise they're rock hard and inedible. They undergo a process called bletting which looks like they rot. But it is not microbial infection that turns other fruit brown and spoils them, it's an enzymatic breakdown of the fruit without fermentation. The bletted medlars turn into a brown paste that tastes just like apple pie. Very sweet. They can be eaten like that off the tree but they contain a lot of hard seeds. We cook and run them through a purée sieve to separate the seeds. The result is a brown paste that can be cooked into a jam or kept frozen. We make medlar tart out of it but also use it as filling for Christmas cookies or pancakes. One of my favorite fruit that barely anybody knows about.