During the 27 years when I lived in Clyde I think I discovered every single Quince  tree in the district. It was one of the many pleasures of living in this rugged area that the miners & pioneering orchardists left the fruit of their labours for us to inherit.  Each old stone cottage had it’s special story to be told through it’s home garden and their orchard.  The miners lettuce, the thyme & the 100 year old trees, apples, quinces, elder, walnuts, japonica apples, almonds (the first to blossom each year) the rose hip now growing wild all over the hills.  In places such as Conroy’s Gully, Blackman’s Road, Tinker’s, Dry Bread Road, Miner’s Lane & so many more.   Beautiful quince do not keep so well but I try to keep bowls of them around for as long as possible as they just smell so good.

Ingredients

Quince
Apples
Sugar

I usually do about 1/3 quantity of quince to 2/3 quantity of apple. 

Method

Wipe the fluff off the quince & wipe the apples clean.  Roughly chop (sometimes you need an axe to cut the quince!) the fruit in 1/2 to 1/4’s & place in a solid bottomed pot with cold water to cover and bring slowly to the boil.  Simmer away & enjoy the aroma! Add more water if required.

Cook your fruit in water till tender, strain thru a jelly bag overnight.  Measure the liquid back into the pot and reheat.  Slowly stir in an equal amount of warmed sugar to the reheated liquid. Bring this back to a rolling boil watching it at all times, stirring with a wooden spoon, test for it’s setting progress on a saucer. Take off the heat & pour into warmed clean jars, cover with the old styled cellophane jam covers.

If you have an abundance of apples you can simply stew them during the year and put a spoonful of this delicious quince jelly on the top of each helping. Delicious!