Mysterious Landscapes

Medlar Flower.

So my friends, you may remember my bringing us a picture of the Medlar fruit; a fruit from the orchards of Medieval Europe. Here is it's flower. You may notice it has a vague similarity to that of a wild Rose; it is indeed a member of the Roseaceae family.
Anyway, I never mentioned the name of the process by which the fruit is ripened; it is called "bletting". Five months after this pretty blossom of May 24, 2009, the ripening fruit hung from a tree of yellow brown leaves still firm. It was then matter of picking the medlar fruit and allowing it to ripen on a bed of straw until it was seemingly half rotten. This bletting process produces a fruit the consistency and flavor of pear butter that you can scoop out with a spoon. Quite tasty, this ancient dessert!

(please click on the photo for a larger image)

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To my Steemit explorer friends,

I have probably taken over a million photographs of the natural world since childhood; this is a daily series of some of those I most treasure.

Where They are From

1. Many are from an organic orchard that I created on the hill above my home. When you are raising trees from saplings you are out in all weather at all hours and see remarkable things.

2. Some are from my art studio and my efforts there- especially those on behalf of the Tibetan people.

3. Still others are from my wanderings in the wilderness with compass and map my companions. Many are featured from posts I have created here on Steemit and I will link to those whenever possible if you wish to read more of the how, when and where.

Please upvote if you liked this post, and follow for more journeys through our mysterious and amazing world. And please comment as I greatly value these and will answer any questions you may have (and generally go to look at your posts of course since I consider a group of friends the most valuable possible outcome from efforts on Steemit.

*This photo was taken with the Canon EOS 70D, 18-55 mm lens