Flatlanders

I dreamed of sailing last night – the gale raged around the house all night and still hasn’t blown itself out. Rain is battering  the windows and the bright yellow leaves of my cherry tree are all over the garden. I just saw three young persons with enormous rucksacks trudge wearily past – not the weekend you’d pick for going camping.

I fired up the woodburning stove first thing and I don’t plan to move far all day. It’s the perfect time for indoor tasks, doing accounts, tidying the living room, working out what to do with the quinces I bought in a fit of optimism…

I think it’s the fur that’s alarming me. I had never seen a real life quince in the flesh before I found them in the orchard shop, and didn’t expect them to be furry. This is why they’ve been sitting on the counter for two weeks, looking at me whenever I make a cup of tea like small neglected pets.

Luckily the internet is full of intriguing quince recipes and if I had a food processor I’d surely be making Dulce de Membrillo from The Travellers Lunchbox - it comes with a beautiful, inspiring story about discovering good food. Historic food has an interesting article about quince paste – your quince can be a design item as well as food if you can lay your hands on a mould.

The Cottage Smallholder, as always, is there before me and has an easy to follow quince jelly recipe. Maybe the traditional ways are the best. I’m going to ferret around for empty jam jars.

Later: All the jam jars are still full of the grape jelly we made a couple of weeks ago, so I ended up just braising the quinces and making a wonderfully fragrant syrup. I had some on my porridge this morning and it was glorious – not too sweet, not too sour, just that beguiling quince flavour that is completely unlike anything else.

Tags:   cam valley orchards · food · quinces1 Comment