This is my first year with fruit on my quince trees. One tree has 1 fruit the other had 6, but one dropped yesterday. The dropped fruit looks perfect, no bruising so far, and is just over one pound. It is slightly yellow and slightly fragrant, but I'm sure it isn't fully ripe. Any tips on how to ripen it off the tree?
-Sarah
If it has final color and some fragrance, it is usable in any recipes. Once quince are that far along, they will continue to ripen off the tree. You can use standard methods--bagging or bagging with other fruit. Just bringing it inside for a week is enough.
I have never had fully-sized but green quince turn color off the tree, but the flesh is perfectly good for sauce or juice.
I would estimate my crop at ~200 pounds from the one tree, and I have been tossing dozens of smallish or malformed fruits for a while now.
Yes, quince are astonishingly productive. I broke branches last year, and I've already cut off pounds and pounds of perfectly good fruit so it won't happen again.
Mine that fell off was already yellow. Putting them next to other fruits like banana or apple will give off ethylene gas. You can check the seed to see if it's brown.
John S
PDX OR
Quince is already the fruit that is highest in pectin. Not quite ripe quince must be chock full of pectin!
I noticed that when I used to play basketball really hard for two hours, my knees would ache, but if I ate quince, they wouldn't. I think it helps cut down inflammation and arthritis.
John S
PDX OR
Use of an auger-type juicer for getting juice/pectin from quince will avoid the watering down and lengthy boiling of most recipes. This is expensive equipment, however.
My tree produces only one fruit per ten blossoms on average, so I have never broken a branch, but I do tie up branches with macrame to allow vehicle clearance in the driveway, this may have prevented limb breakage. This of course requires a mature tree with sturdy central leaders.
Well some don't need to be cooked. The Russian ones in general. I recommend Crimea and Kuganskaya. They are called Krimskaya in Russian. I don't like to cook them because I like the full flavor and array of antioxidants, but I could cook them to preserve them.
Most of them do need to be cooked, but not those 2.
John S
PDX OR
Not sure why many recipes call for boiling quince to death,
except to obtain the pink to red coloration, not a good tradeoff for
retaining nutrients. Perhaps way back when someone forgot about
the pot and returned to a pretty red substance and it caught on.
Making sauce requires only brief boiling and making juice does not
require any boiling--just a thorough, steamy heating.
Idyllwild
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
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