Quince Fruit from Blossom to Table

Quince is a fruit resembling an apple in shape. It can be used like apples in recipes, though they need more sweetening. Unlike apples, the fruits are fuzzy and hard to prepare for eating. I probably never would have planted a quince tree, and, ironically, it has survived better than most of the trees we wanted enough to plant. It had been planted in our orchard by the a previous owner of our Templeton property. I have learned to eat it and in this post will show you photos of quince fruit from blossom to table. 

It produces these lovely quince blossoms in March.

Quince Blossoms in March, © B. Radisavljevic

By the middle of April, after the bees have finished pollinating them, the fruit begins to set.

Quince Fruit in Early Stages of Growth in April,  © B. Radisavljevic

Recently I tried to photograph the quince tree in the fruit setting stage on a windy day. It didn't work very well, so I made a video that doesn't mind the wind. Play in fullscreen for best view. It's short.

The quince ripen in autumn. Do you see the fuzz? You  can also see that the green is turning yellow, an indication the fruit is getting ripe. I usually keep the picked fruit on the counter in the house to let it finished ripening before I cook it.

Quince Fruit in Final Stage of Growth in Autumn,  © B. Radisavljevic

How to Cook and Eat Quince

Although my mother-in-law used to make quince jelly, I'm too lazy to make jelly or jam anymore. If you'd like to make it, here's a recipe for quince jelly. If you'd rather have someone else make it, that's also an option.

 Tiptree Quince Jelly (340g) Mrs. Miller's Amish Homemade Quince Jelly 8 oz/226g - Pack of 3 (Boxed)

& 

I combine my quince with the apples that get ripe at the same time to make a fruit compote. I use an equal number of apples and quince. Then I recruit my husband to peel and core the quince, since it's too tough a job for my arthritic hands anymore. We core, but don't bother to peel, the apples. I then cut them into bite-sized chunks and put them in the slow cooker.

I sprinkle the mixture with lots of cinnamon and enough sugar or agave syrup to reach a level of sweetness I like, and then I add about 1/3 cup water. I let it cook on high covered for an hour and then turn it down to low until it's tender enough for a fork to poke through it easily. I then taste to see if I need to adjust seasonings before either eating right away, putting in the refrigerator for later, or blending it into apple-quince sauce. I prefer it in chunks as a side dish to my morning toast and peanut butter. I also like it before bed with some BelVita Breakfast Biscuits. I enjoy every flavor I've tried. I usually get the  Blueberry or Cinnamon Brown Sugar varieties.

Quince Fruit in Compote Ready to Eat,  © B. Radisavljevic

How do you like to eat quince? 

If you enjoyed this post, please share it. The sharing buttons are just above the comment box at the end of the post. The photo below is especially designed for pinning.

This is my seventeenth post for the 2016 AtoZchallenge, a Blogging Challenge for the month of April, 2016. My theme is plants, since this is a gardening blog. Here are links to the other posts if you missed them.

A is for Apple Blossoms
B is for Bottlebrush
C is for Carnations
D is for Daisy
E is for Elderberry
F is for Flowers
G is for Gazania
Hollyhocks are Edible
Irises Are Garden Survivors
Jupiter's Beard: A Mystery Finally Solved
Kale for Lunch
Lion's Tail - A Perennial Summer Burst of Orange
Miner's Lettuce is Tasty and Free"Naked Ladies" Bloom in August
Oleander through the Year

Plant Pests and their Predators: Aphids and Ladybugs

Related articles

• What the Wildlife Left Intact in Our Orchard
• Our Quince are Getting Larger

Neglected Fruit Trees Can Still Produce Tasty Fruit

Neglected Quince tree bearing fruit

When we moved onto this property, the former owner had planted an orchard. Unfortunately, we were traveling so much those first few years we had neglected it. Also, I was not a great fan of quince, so I never did much with the quince tree, even though it faithfully produced a great crop every year. I didn't know what to do with all those lovely quince, either, every winter, except cook them with apples, raisins and cinnamon for a fruit compote, which was tasty. The video shows how this tree appeared last May.

The former owner also planted a plum tree that produces delicious green plums every year. Only in the past few years did I realize it was there, so it was also neglected. This is how it looked last spring.

Neglected Plum Tree in Bloom, © Barbara Radisavljevic

These blossoms matured into fruit in the summer, and then in the fall and winter the leaves died, but they didn't fall off. That is amazing, since you can see how twisted the base of the tree is, and how many suckers are growing on it. It seems every time we are about to cut them off it rains. So they didn't get cut off. That's on my "to do" list for the weekend -- if it doesn't rain again. This is how the tree appear last week. In the first picture, taken from a distance, the tree appears almost dead, with all those brown leaves hanging from the limbs. 

Now take a closer look. There are some new blossoms that show life is, indeed still present.

A very close look shows the blossoms that still haven't opened, as well as the ones that have. It looks like this tree will thrive this year if the rain doesn't come during pollination. Soon the bees will be all over this tree, as they have in years past. 

It is God's nature to want every living thing he created to thrive and bear fruit, even when we haven't done all we can to help it along. These trees were watered once or twice during the entire dry summer and never got any nutritional supplements. They weren't sprayed or pruned. Yet they bore fruit. Their roots went deep into the soil for water and nutrients that God gave them. Maybe if I make a real effort to care for these trees this year, they will not just survive, but thrive. 

Some neglected children can be like these trees. I remember when we met my son, who was four at the time. He had been neglected by his mother and his father was in jail. Finally his mother took him, along with his older sister, to the county and abandoned them there. In spite of a distinct lack of attention, his natural and God-given compassion, curiosity, and survival instincts helped him to survive and thrive until he came into our home through foster care, and stayed there through adoption. We did not neglect him. You can read his story here.