Hi larry gene, I picked up the idea from a blog devoted to making preserves and jellies. The author, and many many commentors, talked about successfully using ornamental quince, because they were finding it hard to find quince in their stores, so I thought I would try it--why not? I made it tonight. I was just using the windfalls, so I only had 5 or 6 smaller ones. After quartering, coring and peeling (more work than an apple, surprising how big the core & how many seeds in those little fruits. Next time I won't core or peel them, I will put them through a sieve after cooking to remove the pips etc ) I just put the fruit in a small glass pan with about 60% weight of sugar to the weight of the quince -- I was afraid of making it too sweet--about a half inch of water, and put it in the toaster oven. After 2 hours the fruit was soft, and tasted good, but was still yellow and syrupy. I left it another 2 hours and came back to find it ruby red and just right. Just had some on ice cream, couldn't wait till it was firm, and wow! love it. Gives a real pow in the mouth, sweet and tart. Can't wait to try it the portuguese way, with cheese.

My named Cydonia which was about 8-9' tall when purchased in a large pot- bloomed the first two years in the ground. Second year fruit dropped very early. Third year- this year- I have 25+ quinces! I'm impressed- it beat many apples, pears and plums.

1. Mix them with sweet apples for pie (what my neighbor does) 2. Make "membrillo" 3. Paradise jelly (I've made almost 20 jars this year). 4. Preserves Linda Zeidrich's Joy of Jams has a few quince recipes, try doing a search on Harvest forum too. Here's my recipe (small batch, the original was a huge batch) for Paradise Jelly (apple-quince-cranberry): Paradise Jelly (makes 3 halfpints) I steamed the quinces a couple of days ahead and put the juice in the fridge. Didn't weigh them, but probably 5 lbs of quinces yielded about 7.5 cups of juice - or at least brown water (I'm not sure how much pectin was in the juice - I kept adding water to the pot while steaming.). I think the juice would have been lighter if I had simmered the quinces, or if I had a steam juicer, instead of trying to steam them in the oven - they oxidized. Then I did the apples and cranberries another day (just 5lbs of mixed apples, not all tart, most Golden and Red (?) Delicious since that's what I had. Got about 6 cups of juice from those.) Used a 12-oz bag of cranberries cooked until just popped in the hot strained apple juice, let drain in linen jelly bag for 5 hours, refrigerated juice and put the fruit pulp into a Ziploc bag with the apple pulp. I milled the fruit the next day, cooked with 1/2C of sugar, and made about 36 oz (pint, 12-oz jar processed 20 min and 8-oz jar in fridge) of cran-applesauce. I strained the apple-cranberry juice through coffee filters the next day. Now, for the jelly: Mix the quince juice and the cran-apple juice half and half (or whatever you have). Use no more than 4C of juice total, or this will set before you get it in the jars. Use at least a 6-quart (deep) preserving pan b/c it will foam up like crazy. Add 3C of sugar to the 4C of juice, I also added 1 tsp of bottled (strained) lemon juice. Simmer, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved, then raise heat to a boil (make sure your canner is preheated with the jars sterilized if processing only 5 minutes). Boil until gel point (220 at sea level) or until jelly sheets from a metal spoon (remove from heat while testing). Quickly skim if necessary. Jar immediately, keeping ladle close to funnel. Do all 3 jars at once, then go back and spoon off any foam from the top of the jars, adjust the headspace to 1/4", wipe rims and put lids and rings on. DON'T use a bubble freer even if you see tiny bubbles in the jars - just wait til they rise to the surface and spoon the foam off. Process 5 minutes (for sterilized jars) or 10 min (for unsterilized) in BWB. The last jar you fill may have some small bubbles, and you might have an ounce or 2 left in the pan to put in the fridge. Rinse out the pan with very hot water and dry before starting the next batch - you don't want "threads" of old jelly in the new batch. This may set up very quickly (while you're ladling it into the jars) or it may take a couple of weeks depending on the pectin level of the juice. Set the cooled jars away on a level surface and leave them alone for 2-3 weeks before you decide you've made syrup instead of jelly. I tried reprocessing some and found that the top of the jar was liquid after a week, but the bottom was starting to set so I should have left it alone. The apple-quince jelly I made is taking longer to set than the stuff with cranberry in it.

I am absolutely in love with quince. It is one of the most fragrant fruit in the world period. It makes very pleasantly fragrant preserves few fruit can even think to compete with. It also makes some really killer cold traditional Persian drinks with fresh lime. Also awesome in some hot Korean teas. I was pretty tempted to trial growing it but for now decided to hold off. Reason was since we usually process it (cook it) before we eat it--I thought maybe store bought vs own grown may not make a monumental difference in quality like say a store bought peach vs tree ripened peach does. I could be very wrong though as some store bought is seemingly more ripe (while still firm) and fragrant than others. Also store bought quince can get pretty pricey but my home's use is not overwhelming. Now if I had more space, wasn't in a humid region, or was OK with spraying with whatever it took-- any of those alone would probably very seriously tempt me to test out a few varieties. I don't mind chewing some raw quince for fun sometimes, but it is in processing it that it becomes a fruit like none other for me.