Baked or roast quince

I left a box of quinces outside the gate for anyone who cared to help themselves. Later we discovered who it was, when invited to house-warming drinks. Another neighbour thanked us for them, and said she'd used them all for making Nigel Slater's Roast Quince. I have to say I'm immediately suspicious of these sorts of recipes, usually fussy and over-complicated. I have to say all of these sound quite nice (unlike the hideous pear and chocolate crumble that features in Slater's Guardian column this week - what a hideous way to treat Comice pears).

This is our recipe, which differs a little.

4 quinces, peeled, quartered and cored

Large glass of quince wine (or other fragrant desert wine of your choice)

2 heaped tablespoons of brown sugar

1 tsp of powdered ginger and another of cinnamon

1. Poach quinces in sweetened wine for half an hour, or until slightly soft (we put them in the microwave for 10 minutes, turning them in the bowl occasionally.

2. Transfer to a roasting dish, reserving the fluid,

3. Add the fluid to the brown sugar and spice, stir to dissolve (over heat if necessary)

4. Spoon this syrup over the fruit and place in oven pre-heated to 170 C

3. Bake for 40 minutes, turning and basting occasionally with the syrup, until very soft and tender (we turned down the oven to 120 C and left it for a bit longer).

The result is quite unlike anything you will have tasted, the same concentrated quince flavour as Membrillo but with the a unique texture; the caramelised crust reveals a rather chewy coarse, granular, centre with just a hint of the astringency of the raw fruit.

Frass on Quince

I noticed lots of insect frass on the calyces of a couple of quince this year. Quince are famous for having few pests or diseases, so I was a bit annoyed to find this as well as quite a lot of scab. However, on close inspection the damage is mainly on the exterior, extending only a little way into the fruit at the calyx end.

I'm not sure what did the damage, I couldn't find anything among the frass or inside, but I think whatever it was, it's an opportunist bug of some kind rather than a serious specific pest of quince. I'll need to keep an eye out for it, as even this small amount of external damage will rapidly turn to brown rot in store.

Quince Jelly

Nearly all the windfall Quinces bubbling away in a large pan. Recipe to follow.

Crop - Vranja

A very heavy crop of Vranja. However, the quality was rather below par this year. As the set was very heavy, the average size was smaller than usual, but the northern side of the tree was very badly affected by brown spotting which I think must be pear scab (as the pears were also affected to a greater extent than usual). The black spots are mostly surface deep, but on a couple of fruits they do extend into the flesh with cracking of the exterior as in pear scab. I thing the peculiar season probably encouraged this (very high temperatures early on made for some very soft growth which couldn't withstand more humid conditions later on). However, I think I need to open up the centre of the tree to increase ventilation, as it has become horrible congested in the last couple of years.

Quince - Sobu

This is my second half-standard quince tree, Turkish variety Sobu. The reason I added another quince variety despite having a large, productive tree of Vranja is that I hoped it would be of a higher quality, for cooking and exhibition. Certainly for the latter, the fruits are large, smooth skinned and a regular shape. The only problem is that they don't ripen on the tree, but stay green until they drop. I think in future I will need to pick in early September and bring inside to ripen/yellow in time for Autumn shows. The other slightly annoying thing is the amount of 'bloom', impossible to pick without damaging. However, it does 'polish' off very easily.

One of the probles with some quinces is that they remain very woody next to the core, which can be quite a large proportion of the fruit, so the best quality ones have a small core relative to flesh which makes preparing them before cooking much easier.

I cut one open, and it was quite easy. The core is small in relation to the flesh area. However, this one had bruised internally without showing any sign externally.

The tree has only been in about 3-4 year, so cropping is very light, half a dozen fruits of varying sizes.

some autumn photos

Crop: Vranja

A good crop again, 11.5 kg (25 lb) not counting the early windfalls. The scent is wonderful.

Blossom: Vranja

Evaluation:Meeches Prolific

Hugely disappointing again this year. I've come to the conclusion quinces simply aren't happy being trained.

This variety is way behind Vranja in readyness. The couple of fruits are still quite immature and covered with down, though they never attain the size of other quince varieties.

I've decided that this one is coming out next year, to be replanted elsewhere as a bush.

Crop: Vranja

A modest crop of Vranja, 3.5 kgs, nearly 8lbs. Probably as many as we need for our own purposes, though miserly for size and age of tree.

These will be used for jelly.

Found several harlequin ladybirds nesting in the eyes of the fruit, reported to The Harlequin Survey

Crop: Vranja

The quinces have started falling, so I decide to pick them slightly earlier than I'd have chosen. The windfalls all seem to have slight damage around the stem, probably wasps. Brown rot has then set in and caused them to fall. Plus I wanted some for the 'any other fruit variety' at the village show.

Quince jelly making isn't my favourite task, probably involves the hardest work of all jams but the result is highly worthwhile. I might poach them in my rose-petal wine, as though flavourful it's a little too odd as a desert wine in itself.

Quince: Vranja

I've been debating whether to take out my half-standard quince Vranja, as it had never produced any fruit until this year. However, I had been treating it fairly brutally, as the extension growth obscures our view of the lake. This is the first year I've given it it's head, and there is now a good quantity of fruit that looks like it will survive, mostly set on tips.

I still have the dilemma of whether to take it out. I have two others; Meeches Prolific, which is adequate, if untidy, as a cordon, and Sobu as a half-standard which I hope will produce better-quality fruit which will be less woody around the core. There is a limit to the quantity of quinces even the most enthusiastic of us can cope with!