Thursday was another lovely day for October with some long sunny spells.
Last year we picked our quinces in the middle of October and although we had a good number of fruits they all suffered from what we think may have been bitter pit which rendered all the fruits unusable. This disorder mainly affects apples and as none of our apples growing close by have ever suffered in the same way I was sort of hoping that it would go away of its own accord or it was something other than bitter pit.
The quinces ripening on our tree look to be in good condition as does the tree itself so I decided it was time to test a few fruits. Using the apple test, lifting the quince upwards in the palm of my hand, this particular fruit parted company with the tree very easily.
I picked three more fruits for testing. Quinces make a superb addition to apple crumbles or pies so I decided to try these four out, with some damaged apples in a little apple and quince crumble.
All four quinces were peeled and were fortunately free from any signs of bitter pit.
It was quite a relief as I peeled the first quince to find it looked in excellent condition beneath the skin. The next problem was how to get the best flesh off the fruit. Although a quince may look like a pear the centre core is extremely hard. I've never managed to quarter and core a quince in the same way I would prepare an apple or pear. I've found the easiest method for me is to pare pieces of flesh from the fruit until only the centre core remains. A few large Egremont Russets that were damaged were added to the quince.
With a little Greek yoghurt it was a tasty treat for dessert at dinner time. I do hope the rest of our quinces are just as good.
Friday was forecast to be the last day of the fine settled spell so we decided to make the most of it and have a day out. As it turned out we finished up back in the 1940’s.
If you hadn't already guessed I’d dragged Sue out again to photograph steam trains, this time on The Great Central Railway a heritage line operating in the Leicestershire countryside.
The weather forecasters turned out to be correct about the change in the weather as Saturday brought us a cool damp morning with some drizzly spells followed by some brighter sunny spells in the afternoon. I wouldn't say the rainfall ended our dry spell as it amounted to only 1.8mm. There looks to be plenty of rain in the forecast for next week though so our dry spell is set to end any time soon.
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I'm glad your quinces are fine this year, they certainly look impressive. It's a shame they're not more readily available at the greengrocer's, they're delicious. I haven't seen them for years though. The steam day looks like a good one. I especially like the "Dig for Victory" signs.
ReplyDeleteWe managed to get some quinces for free from our local greengrocer last year. We made him a little apple and quince tart as a thank you.
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