In the past I have picked quince off the ground, or gotten them when they came off easily by hand. Even that experience was limited. A neighbor asked me to harvest their quince tree for them. That's a lot of quince, so of course a staggered harvest (and sharing) is in order. I tried to find info on when quince should be harvested, and find online material that says when the quince is turning yellow and starting to develop aroma, that the quince need to be clipped off the tree, and that they will be better if given six to eight weeks to ripen off the tree than if ripened on the tree. Well, I don't know...if anybody has any experience please share.
I have been harvesting my 'Pineapple' quince tree for 30 years now (Portland).
A whole-tree mass harvest will be a waste of time unless some full-sized yellow fruit has already fallen.
That indicates many ripe fruit on the tree.
If a lot are falling, get to it, as quince are easily bruised and quality of those lessens quickly.
Aroma is a good indicator.
I have never harvested before October. Then one must compromise between waiting for fuller ripeness and
fruit quality. Main problems are splitting and brown rot; these will increase during onset of autumn rains.
Most quince fruits, even ripe ones, cling stubbornly to the branch and need to be bent or twisted off by hand
to avoid branch damage.
There might be some additional ripening off-tree; my fruits, when sampled after 4-6 weeks of storage, do not show
any taste or texture advantage over recently-harvested fruit. The longer you store the fruit, the more moisture
content it will lose. Some of my fruit never turns yellow (oddly, on the same branches every year). These green fruits
have the same flavor and texture as the yellow ones.
Thanks everybody.
Larry, that was very useful. Thanks for sharing your experience.
This tree has not produced very aromatic fruit in the past, making it a bit harder to gauge. The color observations are helpful. I did clip off a dozen on Friday, will probably repeat that this coming Friday. I think overall ripening happens sooner in Corvallis than Portland, and will try to complete this harvest the end of October.
I always try to hold out until 10 October, and pick everything at once.
Some years the weather does not hold and I pick beginning of October.
Quince stores well outside in a dry location. If placed in multiple layers,
there will be little bruise spots where the fruits touch, not a problem for usage.
The green-fruit branches were not always the case, but occurred after much
top-pruning of the tree to limit height. The fruits on that newer wood stay green.
That is the only difference I can think of, as fruit on the lower north side of the dense tree turns yellow reliably.
The upper fruits are all sun-exposed and are also significantly larger.
What I have observed from my Aromatnya (with a branch of Kugonskaya) over years is consistent with what Larry_G wrote. I usually pick the fruits when they turn yellow and aromatic, and the fine velvety hair became easily rubbed off. Harvested fruits, staying at room temperature in the kitchen, easily rot and become moldy. So far my favorite method of cooking quince is steaming, I simply steam a few, with intact skin but the fine hair rubbed off. The daily harvest lasts as long as I have enough mason jars & space in the freezer. (I mainly use the steamed quinces for smoothie and fruit leather.)
You guys got me intrigued with your theory. So I decided to try it with Crimea/Krimskaya. Today, I tried two quinces. One was mostly green, and one was mostly yellow. THey both fell naturally from the tree. The green one was quite astringent and lacked sweetness and aroma. It tasted like a fruit that I would not choose to grow.
Then I tasted the mostly yellow one. It had a nice aroma. It was sweet and flavorful. Just the flavor I expect with Crimea, although I haven't started picking yet.
In an n of one, my opinion is that with the Crimea variety, yellow is much better than green. I will stay with only harvesting the yellow ones. They also seem to come off the tree more easily.
JohN S
PDX OR
Interesting idea. I don't cook mine, so that could be a factor. When you cook foods, you usually decrease the amount of antioxidants and vitamin C.
I also hold the surprising belief that table sugar isn't healthy for us, so I prefer not to add it to my diet.
That could be the difference. Some people don't cook aromatnaya, which ET grows.
John S
PDX OR
Years ago at an HOS event met Barbara Ghazarian, who was selling her book Simply Quince. There are several good recipes in that book, that make for most of how quince is used in this house. Mashed Yams and Quince with Ginger and Cardamom, Lamb and Quince Tagine, Cumin-Glazed Carrots and Quince, Chicken and Quince Stew are favorites. I also make a Turkish Lamb and Quince Stew. We do not use sugar in cooking. Never encountered a quince considered tasty raw, just read about them.
I add it to salads and casseroles for about the next month and a half, usually in slices. Then I chop up the rest and freeze it. I also saw Barbara Ghazarian and she mentioned that quince is the fruit that is highest in pectin, so it is anti-inflammatory. Once frozen, it is easy to chop it up and blend it into some of my medicinal concoctions. It adds taste too.
John S
PDX OR
I have to take out Maryannes Cooks Jumbo quince. She is favoring small bush habit figs she's propagated for the location. Raised soil in doubled up railroad ties, (not recommended.) I've been frustrated when confronted with sweeping mandated reductions to my watched pruning patterns, looking for resultant supportive growth structure anyway, so I'm ok without the fight, although I have been the recipient of what fruit was to be had.
The individual fruits are big. Needs to be pruned to support the holdfast on the branch. Should limit fruiting sites to encourage shorter thicker scaffold. One of the larger, in my photo archives is on a scale reading 2 pounds 7ounces.
I have just a few fruit left on the tree to ripen a bit more. This year is the last harvest. If anyone has serious interest for scion wood, I would hold off on taking her out till after leaf drop and dormancy. Otherwise, I may harvest the firewood sooner and allow to get to the fig planting before it turns cold to get established earlier.
I put them into a bean soup today, which is a typical use for me. I cut many slices and added them to the soup along with green leafies, plain yogurt and fresh salsa. The quince slices have a nice slight crunch, along with some sweetness and some tart flavors. It just makes the bean soup so much more interesting. It also adds nutrition.
John S
PDX OR
This year one of my quince trees had too much fruit (branches were bent to the ground), so I started harvesting them when they were clearly under-ripe. Although they were smaller and denser with a thinner layer of (very dense) flesh around the seeds, they were still very worth cooking and eating. Every time I pick the next round they taste even better than the last as they are actually starting to ripen now, but I'm glad I didn't just toss the under-ripe ones. I think you don't need to be so careful about picking at the perfect stage of ripeness.
JohannsGarden said
This year one of my quince trees had too much fruit (branches were bent to the ground), so I started harvesting them when they were clearly under-ripe. Although they were smaller and denser with a thinner layer of (very dense) flesh around the seeds, they were still very worth cooking and eating. Every time I pick the next round they taste even better than the last as they are actually starting to ripen now, but I'm glad I didn't just toss the under-ripe ones. I think you don't need to be so careful about picking at the perfect stage of ripeness.
Thank you - this is very good to know.
I intend to pick next on Friday (the 10th, Larry!) and will probably take more than I have been, but not the whole tree. I will finish it this month though.
Years ago I tried all the quince varieties at an HOS event, about 10 in total, and found all too astringent to my taste. Among them only Kuganskaya showed a bit sweetness. I hence grafted Kuganskaya on my Aromatnaya tree but so far could not find any difference between those two. Also, the astringency does not go away no matter how ripe the fruits are, even when they start to rot on the tree. I find them edible raw, but I don't like it. (Neighbors' goats do not mind, good for them.)
Over years I have been intrigued by JohnS' comments on Crimea, so I plan to graft Crimea on my tree next spring, just as a fun comparison.
JohnS wrote: "I also hold the surprising belief that table sugar isn't healthy for us, so I prefer not to add it to my diet."
That's right. I never added sugar to quince. For making "smoothie"/fruit leather, I fill ½ vol. of a mason jar with steamed quince, and the remaining vol. with seedless grape, mulberry, blueberry, and then unsweetened tar cherry juice to fill the interstitial space, then grind up the whole thing with an immersion blender. That is the "smoothie" for eating right away, or fruit leather after drying. (Must be IKEA psychology ... I think it tastes better than commercial products. 
) The sugar from the grape/berries is enough to gel up the pectin from quince in the refrigerator after a day or two - if I didn't eat up or used up the "smoothie" right away. Interesting texture, tastes just as good.
BTW, I also used microwaved quince (as well as dried figs) for pizza topping.
Intriguing post, ET,
I have had Aromatnaya from a few different sources. I have been able to eat it, but I've never really enjoyed it. It feels like work. Too astringent, texture problems, and a lack of sweetness. I tried Kuganskaya at the HOS event. I liked it, and ordered it from Corvallis. I have been growing Crimea for decades from OGW. I love Kuganskaya and Crimea and I can't distinguish between them. I eat them fresh in slices when I can. Their sweetness really brightens up many recipes. I also eat them by themselves. It's mostly October and November. In Russia, both Kuganskaya and Crimea are called Krimskaya. That name was also on the accession from the Clonal Germplasm Repository. When I freeze them, they become much easier to chop and blend into smoothies. They are a very dense fruit when raw.
John S
PDX OR
I use lots of quince prepared as you would for applesauce.
This requires a multi-minute period of boiling, to achieve a smoother, less lumpy texture, takes longer than apples.
The process also removes all astringency.
I suspect that if the pure juice was boiled for as long, it would lose much of its astringency,
but this would turn the juice a dark red color, I prefer mine barely boiled, to retain the transparent golden color.
The use of stevia can reduce or eliminate sugar as an ingredient.
Do those varieties touted as better for fresh eating also have a chew-down factor same as apples?
Or is thin-slicing the rule.
Chewing on Pineapple Quince just leaves one with a mouthful of coarse sawdust, even if flavorful and not objectionably astringent.
Quince is a much more dense fruit than almost any apple. It is physically difficult to bite into a whole quince the same way that people do with apples. The flavor isn't an issue with the slices. It's the density, for me, and I imagine, for others. I have brought Crimea quince to an HOS board meeting and people enjoyed the slices.
John S
PDX OR
sweepbjames said
I have to take out Maryannes Cooks Jumbo quince. She is favoring small bush habit figs she's propagated for the location. Raised soil in doubled up railroad ties, (not recommended.) I've been frustrated when confronted with sweeping mandated reductions to my watched pruning patterns, looking for resultant supportive growth structure anyway, so I'm ok without the fight, although I have been the recipient of what fruit was to be had.
The individual fruits are big. Needs to be pruned to support the holdfast on the branch. Should limit fruiting sites to encourage shorter thicker scaffold. One of the larger, in my photo archives is on a scale reading 2 pounds 7ounces.
I have just a few fruit left on the tree to ripen a bit more. This year is the last harvest. If anyone has serious interest for scion wood, I would hold off on taking her out till after leaf drop and dormancy. Otherwise, I may harvest the firewood sooner and allow to get to the fig planting before it turns cold to get established earlier.
I have apparently given the wrong name to the large quince pictured. I called it Cooks Jumbo. Maryanne has memory of it being Cooks Mammoth. Her recollection is based on one of the articles she wrote in the local FOOD DAY magazine section of the Oregonian Newspaper many years ago. She mentions a Jim Cox, who was a HOS member back when.... as being the source of her then tree baby. Her article would have then introduced various things quince that his wife cooked up...
That Tree is still going to come out. I have not seen interest from anyone in scion wood as of yet. Hopefully I will be able to procrastinate long enough to run into Joseph Postman and be able to quiz him about what he may recall of the quince inventory at the Repository, if they may be interested in this representation. For the last HOS fruit show we gathered, (from analyzing the footage I took of the tables set up), some 40 different quince samples, collected from the Repository. I was involved with that collecting and suppose I had been pacing the rows looking for that similar shaped, but unique to me anyway, and sizable fruit specimen. That search was not productive then, so brought a sample from Maryannes.
is currently browsing this topic
Idyllwild
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
1 Guest(s)