Our First Quince Harvest
Hello friends,
We have finally have had our first quince harvest. We planted a quince Smyrna tree back in the winter of 2022, and we've been waiting impatiently for a harvest since then.
The first year after sitting there as a stick over winter, the leaves budded, and then it flowered. But nothing became of the fruit, and we weren't worried because the tree was too small to bear the big quince fruit anyway. Over the spring and summer it grew slowly, which was fine with us, as it needed to develop it's root system.
Winter came again, and once more it became a stick. And then the spring of 2023 the leaves unfurled, and the tree flowered again, but this time little quince fruit began to form. At the start there was about 10 fruit, but over the following weeks they started to drop off. Eventually 4 quince fruit remained.
Over the spring and summer the fruit began to grow bigger on the tree. I was realistic in the fact that strong winds could knock them off, so I left them all there. By the time this autumn came, the 4 fruit remained, and they began to ripen to a pretty lemon colour.
Ever since then we've been impatiently waiting for them to be ready to pick. I tested the fruit regularly to see if they were ready to harvest, by gently holding them and tipping them sideways. At first all four did not budge, so they were not ready. But then one day the two smallest fruit dropped into my hand when tested.
We had a couple of weeks more wait for the two biggest fruit to be ready to harvest. Luckily quince store well in the fridge, so when the last two quince were finally ready, it was time to poach the quince. We used our poached quince recipe, which you can find in a blog post here. This year we chose the vanilla and cinnamon combination for flavoring.
And the long wait for our own quince fruit was totally worth it, the poached fruit was aromatic and very tasty. And as a bonus we have lots in the freezer to enjoy over the year. And our quince tree is only a small tree, as it gets bigger much more fruit will ripen. My plan is to share them with family and friends and neighbours, and hopefully swapping them for other fruit we can't grow in the garden.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Our Poached Quince Recipe
Hello friends,
Today I thought I'd share our poached quince recipe with you.
It's the perfect autumnal dessert to eat with vanilla ice cream on a
cool night. And if you have any poached quince left over, just freeze it
away to eat at a later date. Quinces are an acquired taste, just like
feijoas, but once you've tried them, their wonderful aromatic taste will
stay with you all year, as you impatiently wait for their autumn
harvest once again.
The
hardest part of the recipe, is probably finding quinces. When we lived
in Wellington our local New World stocked them for a few weeks each
autumn, so we bought them when we could, and made up a big batch to last
us over the year. Now we live back home in Dunedin, it's a bit harder
to find quinces, as local shops don't stock them. Luckily this year,
I had an excess of pumpkins, and I swapped a big crown gray pumpkin for
a box of quinces with an online friend, but this excess pumpkin harvest
swapping adventure is a whole other story.
For this recipe you'll need:
3 - 4 ripe quinces
750 mL of water
1.5 cups of sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla pod (or 1 - 2 star anise if you can't get a vanilla pod)
The recipe:
1. Peel and core the quinces, chopping off any damaged sections. The fruit are quite brittle and hard, so it's a bit of a job to do. The fruit are unpleasant to eat raw, so I wouldn't advise trying it.
2. Chop the quinces into slices or cubes depending on how you'll want to eat them. The fruit will start to oxidise quickly (turn brownish), but don't worry about that, it'll all turn out okay in the end.
3. To a pot add the water and sugar, mix, and begin to heat to a simmer.
4. Add
the quinces to the pot, and add the cinnamon stick and vanilla pod. You
can swap out the vanilla pod for star anise if you want, but personally
I prefer the vanilla pod.
5. The next thing to do is to make a paper cartouche for the quince mixture. A cartouche is a parchment paper lid, and it covers the surface of the poaching mixture. It traps the steam, and keeps the components submerged in liquid. We just cut off a section of grease proof paper, and folded it so it fitted on top of the quince mixture. It is important to mold it to the mixture so it keeps everything wet.
6. With the lid of the pot off, heat the mixture up, and then let it simmer for an hour. Over time the quinces will slowly change colour, changing from a creamy yellow, to a dark rose pink. This is the colour at the 30 minute mark, it hasn't changed to a pink shade yet.
7. This is the colour at the 60 minute mark. The quinces now are a rose pink, but not quite dark enough. If you do a taste test you'll find them still slightly bitter, but the quinces will be soft like cooked apples.
8. What you are looking for is a slightly darker shade of rose pink, and the quinces will taste highly aromatic. When you're happy with the flavor and taste, remove the cinnamon stick and vanilla pod (or star anise) from the mixture. Remove the pot from the heat.
9. The
only thing left to do is eat it, storing any left overs in the fridge
or freezer. I recommend having it while still warm (or re-heating in the
microwave), with some good quality vanilla ice cream. The vanilla ice
cream really brings out the aromatic quince flavor.
I hope you get a chance making our poached quince recipe yourself over the autumn season, they really are a wonderful fruit. We currently have a fresh batch stored in the fridge to eat this week, and also a couple of frozen batches stored away for later on in autumn and winter.
Please let me know if you give this recipe a go, and tell me what you think of it.
Have a wonderful day.
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon.