Medlars regurgitated/Mispeln revidiert

Just a reminder: November 20th:

mispelnw.jpg

And here is December 7th:

misp2w.jpg

I hadn’t said anything about the term, and I don’t think they read my weblog, but I mentioned the change and got the rather sheepish information that they had decided to turn the W upside down and that Wisbeln was indeed not a Franconian term.

Some of the medlars had already bletted, a term discussed in the comments to my last entry and also at Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufrey and at Giornale Nuovo; in the comments to the latter are links to crude wordplay in ‘Romeo and Juliet’. And yes, they do look like rose-hips in shape. Uncle Jazzbeau also has a link to an entry on persimmons by Laura Limay, saying that one type of persimmon has to blet.

I have now tasted them. The peel can’t be eaten, nor can the 4 or 5 hard stones in each. The brown pulp tastes like a cross between baked apple and bread pudding – not very sour, not very sweet, but apple-like.

The question now is: do they go off? The novel quoted at Gionale Nuovo suggests an effort was made to keep them in the right state of rottenness over winter.

medl1w.jpg

Sorry about the poor focus: bletted on the left, unready on the right, and on the far right a stone, which can be opened only with nutcrackers or a hammer.

medl2w.jpg

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