Quince Preserves

This ancient fruit brought back some wonderful memories for me…

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my Grandparents had a farm in North Carolina — on that farm was a grove of peach trees… deep in that grove, was one, single, withered quince tree that was beautifully prolific, and every winter we’d have its fruit… and it was glorious!  Sweet, perfumy… unlike anything else that I’d ever come across… Well, recently I costumed a production of ‘Pippin’, and late in the 2nd act, one of the characters, Catherine, makes a Quince Pudding for Pippin to celebrate his one year anniversary living with her family… a number of the cast members were curious about this fruit that they had never heard of before, so as a surprise to the cast, I made a batch of Quince Preserves as closing performance gifts.  I used my Grandmother’s recipe; and that batch tasted just as good as I remembered… the next time I went to the farmers market, there were still quince available, so I took the hint, and made another batch for my wonderful and loyal customers here on this site!

So, here for you — preserves from the most ancient of fruits, using an recipe handed down through the generations… Enjoy!