Autumn Quince Recipe

 We have had such lovely autumn weather the last few days, balmy dreamy temperatures that are neither hot nor cold. Just right. A bit like the porridge in the three little bears story.  Yesterday we drove north to a beach and enjoyed a family picnic and then a lovely soothing walk along the beach. Of course just to keep it real, the boys were arguing over shells for some of it but all in all it was so nice to be out of the city and enjoying the weather, the warm breeze tangling my hair and looking at the ocean. I wish we had taken our dogs with us as I think they would have loved it.

Now as I sit here late at night I can hear the wind picking up and blowing outside, so the nice weather is over for another few days at least.  I should have gone for a walk today. Oh well.

Here below is the recipe for bottled quince that I talked about in my last post.

Quince is a very old fruit and kind of mysterious. I have always wondered about it. Never quite knew what  to do with it. I have sampled quince paste in the past and always put this fruit in the too hard basket. Quite literally it is a very hard fruit and it is inedible raw. It has to be cooked.

So I decided to take the plunge and purchase some with our online vegetable box order. It turned out to be much easier to deal with than I thought.

Here is a recipe that I found online.

1.5kg sugar 

2 litres of water

2-3kg of quince ( about 6-8 large quince )

1/2 cup lemon juice

4-6 cups water

Optional: 4-5 whole cloves, 1 strip of orange rind or 1 whole star anise ( I didn't use any of these )

Firstly, wash preserving jars and prepare lids and rings. I wash my jars in hot soapy water and rinse off in hot water. I place them in a oven temperature of 120degrees celsius. I place the lids and rings in a pan of boiling water and gather all other utensils and equipment.

Then make a syrup with the sugar and first quantity of water, bring to the boil in a large pan and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Prepare a bowl with the lemon juice and second quantity of water. Make sure the quince is ripe and blemish free. Wash to remove the brown fuzz that is sometimes on the skin.

Peel the quince and slice into quarters, removing the core and any blemishes and drop into the lemon water to prevent browning. Mine browned a little but once cooked they were fine.

Drain the quince and then add into the syrup and if desired add the spices. Simmer gently on a low heat for anywhere between 25 minutes to 45 minutes. ( The recipe says 45 minutes to 1 hour but I found that after 25 minutes my quince was soft and cooked through. )

Bottle into the sterilised jars and fill to the top with the hot syrup. Remove any air bubbles with a knife down the inside of the jars and then seal with lids and rings. Juice should trickle down to make the seal so make sure you have filled with syrup to the very top. Wipe jars down with a clean cloth.

I am looking forward to eating these in the winter months as a tasty fruit crumble dessert.

Our feijoa tree is dropping handfuls of feijoas every day and as I am mostly the only one to eat them I can't keep up so I decided to preserve some more today. The three bottles in the back are the feijoas and in the front are pears. 

 We have one tree each of pear, apple, feijoa and a lemon tree. Every year the trees are getting bigger and producing more fruit. I imagine one day I will be giving a lot away! But at the moment with hungry boys to feed it is a blessing to have all this fruit and we haven't had to buy any except for some yummy oranges with the vegetable box and the occasional bunch of bananas. We don't do anything special with our trees apart from a little pruning and watering. It is a blessing and a provision and we are very grateful for the space our backyard affords us.

I hope this is an inspiration for you to enjoy old fashioned homemaking skills. It doesn't have to be difficult, that is why I do a little every few days so I don't become overwhelmed with a tonne of fruit that would take many hours. It is quite satisfying to see the fruit that has been growing on our trees for several months to then be bottled and preserved for future delicious desserts or as a topping on our breakfast.

Have a blessed week,

Fiona

"Not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. So don't be afraid, you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows." Matthew 10:29, 31