Quince

[chadspad]

I had never seen a quince until coming to France where they are everywhere. I have several and have decided to give some wine a go. The recipe by C.J.J.Berry tells me to grate them (great job!) and get about 900g of the pulp - the recipe says this will be about 15 quinces. I have only used 4 for that amount. Are the quince in the UK smaller? The ones I have are larger than grapefruit, probably the size of a large mango.

[the.fee.fairy]

We used to have a quince tree here in southern england. We have heavy clay soil and it grew on the east side of a south facing garden.

It was only small as far as i remember, about the same size as the gooseberry bush it lived next to. It gave enough fruit every year for us to give it to the lady next door who made jelly with it.

Can't remember what happened to it. It might have got dieased or soemthing, all i know is suddenly, there's no quince tree (and no gooseberry bush either...). On second thoughts, maybe Dad dug it up for some reason. Must get a new one!

[chadspad]

Can u remember the size of the fruit tho? Were they as large as Ive described?

[the.fee.fairy]

not as far as i remember (we're talking a good 15 years ago). i think they werre about crab apple size.

[chadspad]

That would explain the recipe then! Thanks very much