Medlars: Growing & Cooking: 31 (The English Kitchen)

Medlars orginally came from the Caucasus region, Turkey, Georgia and the Balkans. After the first world war, the popularity of medlar fruit waned, and it became almost forgotten. Jane Steward has been a huge force in the revival of this ancient fruit. Jane Steward is the holder of the Plant Heritage National Collection of medlar trees since 2020. She owns Eastgate Larder, specialist maker of medlar preserves. Her vision and strategy is to revive awareness of the medlar in our gardens and kitchens. She cares for 115 trees in her medlar orchard at her Eastgate in Norfolk home, where she hand-makes preserves, and compounds Norfolk Medlar Gin Liqueur.

Born and bred in Paddington, Jane and her young family moved to the East End in the mid-1980s, and she had two very distinct careers before Eastgate Larder was born. Using her linguistic background – she is fluent in French and German – Jane worked as an equities broker in the City for almost 17 years. Slowly, Jane began to plot her way out of City life.

By then, Jane had met David, a Suffolk boy from a farming background, and they discussed where they wanted to live. They chose Eastgate, a tiny hamlet near Cawston in Norfolk. There they began the next chapter of their lives,  and planted a medlar orchard

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