SC - Period plant sources

[Catherine Keegan]

My Raintree Medlar arrived about three weeks ago.   It's a very robust tree 
with a good looking set of roots.  Poor thing has to wait  until the rain 
quits drowning us to get its real planting.  I wasn't too keen on the 
prices, either, but the plant looks great (and the currents we ordered are 
a lot nicer than I had anticipated).

Another catalog (Millers?) has two varieties of medlar listed.  Are both 
'period'?

I've been doing a lot of reading on medieval plants lately (Harvey has the 
best information so far) and, except for saying that you can mix the medlar 
pulp with honey, I haven't seen any mention of what to do with the blatted 
fruits.  All of my medieval cookbooks are in storage but I don't remember 
ever seeing medlars mentioned in any of them but I probably wasn't looking 
for them, either.  Are there any recipes for medlars?  Not that I have 
anything to worry about for at least two to three years....  But, then I'll 
probably be desperate for recipes for quinces and medlars.

I'd be quite interested in seeds.  I'd like to try the Cornus mas, medlar, 
and Taxus although I had thought the yew to be fairly large.  I thought 
privet or box was used for herb garden edging.

So much to learn...

Keegan

At 11:50 PM 2/21/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Would anyone on the list be interested in splitting pound lots of seeds 
>for the following species?:
>Asimina triloba (pawpaw)   28.00/#
>Cornus mas     (Cornelian cherry)  12.00/#
>Crataegus monogyna (English hawthorn)   15.00/#  (rosehaw jelly)
>Crataegus laevigata    (English hawthorn)   18.00/#  (rosehaw jelly)
>Mespilus germanica  (Medlar)    21.00/#
>Pinus pinea  (Italian stone pine)  12.00/#   (pinenuts)
>Taxus baccata  (English yew)   28.00/#      (herb garden edging)