The MGS Forum
Plants for mediterranean gardens => Fruit and Vegetables => Topic started by: MikeHardman on September 10, 2016, 10:58:43 AM
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'Quince' means different things to different people...
Cydonia oblonga - the basic quince
Pseudocydonia sinensis - Chinese quince
Chaenomeles japonica - Japanese quince
The last is easiest to differentiate; the former two are more similar.
I don't have much experience of quinces. But I've been noticing some quinces in the broad sense locally. I was unsure what they were, despite English-speaking locals calling them quinces.
I note:
"Cydonia oblonga has no serrations on the leaf margins and keeps its sepals in the fruit. Pseudocydonia sinensis has deeply serrated leaf margins and deciduous sepals"
p.197 in "Heirloom Gardening in the South: Yesterday's Plants for Today's Gardens"
by William C. Welch, Greg Grant, Cynthia W. Muelle
[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_6nQ681qy-4C&pg=PA197&lpg=PA197&dq=pseudocydonia+cydonia+difference]
Since my trees' leaves have smooth margins, that means my trees are Cydonia not Pseudocydonia.
Good to know.
But I was/am intrigued by the fruit being so 'scurfy', not smooth. I shall keep watching to see if the fuzzy fruit become smooth as they mature. Also, I guess fuzziness may vary with cultivar.
Mike
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A word of warning about quince cultivars. I was tempted to ask for a tree which would give me big smooth fruit like the ones you see in the supermarket. I planted my one-year-old close to the house and watched it take off. After a few years it had a good crop but the fruit was far too heavy for the branches which hung down alarmingly. Worse the fruit was quite quite tasteless and refused to deepen to a lovely caramel colour when cooked. I cut my losses and outed it and decided to stick with my small, furry but tasty quinces.
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Thanks Fleur - excellent first-hand experience.
One of 'my' trees belongs to the sister-in-law of a local cafe's cook, Dawn. She knows all sorts of traditional recipes. I shall ask her what they do with quinces. ...And hopefully report back here.
Mike
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That would be great, Mike. We can repost any recipes on the website too.
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Mike, as you know quince grow better at the higher elevations and one of the traditional ways of using them was to turn them into preserves (glyko) as in the larger of the 2 jars in the photo. These, along with other produce, were brought down to the lower villages and sold at the annual festivals held in honour of the village saints. In our village that is St Luke who's name day is 18 Oct so that was when the various delicacies, etc, were bought and stockpiled. With the advent of improved roads and transport systems this is no longer the case, although I'm pleased to say that the Festival of St Luke is still held here and is one of the largest and best attended of them all.
The jar in the photo was obtained from a friend who lives in Kakopetria when we visited her a couple of weeks ago so we don't need to wait until 18 Oct!
The smaller jar contains a jam (jelly?) made from prickly pear fruit sweetened with Stevia.
On a personal note I have to admit to not being a great fan of sweet, sticky preserves though I understand the reasoning behind them, it being the best way to preserve things that had a short 'shelf life' before the introduction of refrigeration.
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Mike, your picture tutorial on quinces (10 Sept) which I've just seen - back from a long mainly internet-free holiday - was really helpful, thanks!
Quinces ("real" quinces) go rather well chopped into chunks in a long slow-cooked beef stew.