Our quince are starting to get ripe. They smell vaguely like Juicy Fruit gum.
According to our research you want to leave them on the tree until October or November, taking care not to let them get frosted.
One of them had a big split down the middle of it, and the base was starting to get rotten, so I picked it.
Once we got home we cut the rotten part out and cored it. Raw it is very crunchy, almost like a baby carrot, and very sweet but also pucker-up-buttercup astringent.
We doused it in lemon juice to keep it from browning. Then Ellie wanted to make it into a desert.
We added brown sugar and (a little too much) cinnamon.
Spoon it onto the halves of the quince…
Add a generous dollop of butter.
And put it in the oven to bake at 350.
25 minutes later we had a mushy quince that we beat into a chunky sauce. A little heavy on the cinnamon, so it worked better as a topping than as a standalone.
So not our best farm desert. We’ll keep working on it. Better luck next time.
Little Farm in the Big City 