Quince Takes a Brief Bow in Marketplace

Most American consumers are better acquainted with quince jelly than with the fresh quince itself. And yet, the quince, which resembles a large, misshapen apple with a bumpy exterior, is a staple of Mediterranean cuisine.

Most often, the fresh, pectin-laden fruit is turned into fruit paste, although in parts of the Middle East, the gravelly fleshed quince serves as an exotic addition to meat stews.

This is the time of the year when quince makes a brief appearance on the local market scene.

Unlike most other fruit, quince is usually cooked before being consumed, which is probably the main reason for its limited popularity in the United States. Those steeped in the art of home-preserving usually include a quince among their collection of “family fruit” trees. Among some of the most common varieties, three stand out. The leading commercial variety in the state is the Pineapple quince, introduced in Santa Rosa in 1899 by Luther Burbank, California’s noted horticulturist.

The Pineapple quince, sometimes growing to the size of a grapefruit, boasts a slightly fuzzy skin, golden in color, and a white flesh with a faint flavor of pineapple. The Smyrna, which originated in Turkey and was brought to California in the late 1890s, is more irregular and oblong in shape. The white flesh of the rounder-shaped Orange, the leading quince cultivar in the United States, turns a delicate pink when cooked.

The Pineapple quince is the one most favored by Margo Baughman’s Latino and European customers at the Vista Farmers’ Market.

The grower bucks convention by eating the Pineapple quince out of hand, like an apple. “You can eat it raw as long as the fruit has turned yellow,” she says. “It’s nice and juicy and tastes especially good if you sprinkle it with a little lemon juice and chili powder,” she adds, describing the traditional Mexican combination.

Baughman describes quince candy as tasting “almost like applets and delicious.” The Baughmans have one Pineapple quince tree in their orchard.

Rather than planting a quince tree for the fruit, George Emerich of Emerich Gardens in Fallbrook uses the tree as rootstock for his pears.

Quince trees have long served as rootstock for pear trees, according to this grower of exotic fruits. “It’s very easy to root a quince,” he says. “A lot of growers use it as rootstock for pears because quince grows from cuttings and roots so easily.”

The main drawback is that quince rootstock doesn’t live as long as other rootstock, he said.

Emerich remembers his mother using quince juice in her jams and jellies instead of commercial pectin. “Quince juice is practically tasteless and very high in pectin,” he says. “You can use half quince juice and half fruit juice to make jelly or jam.”

Quince paste is a popular dessert in the Middle East, and so is a tea made from the quince fruit. A quince tree is a fixture in almost every yard in that part of the world.

Iran Jewett, a grower of exotic fruits in Vista, said Persian mothers prize quince for its medicinal properties and brew a tea from the boiled fruit to give to their infants instead of water.

“Quince is called beh, which means good in Iran,” she says. “Some people simply place a quince on the mantel to give fragrance to the room.” Jewett’s favorites include a Chinese quince variety that smells “more like a banana, and is very yellow and elongated, better suited to make jellies,” while the Persian quince tastes sweeter and puts forth beautiful red blooms before bearing fruit.

Harry Najjar, manager of the Cream of the Crop organic market in Oceanside, said he keeps quince on hand as a convenience for those customers accustomed to eating it. “It doesn’t fly out of the store, but some customers like to purchase quince in season,” he says.

Najjar’s organically grown fruit comes from various parts of the state, including North County. Quince will be available at the market through November.

Najjar, who grew up with a quince tree in his back yard, also enjoys the sour-tasting fruit out of hand. “I just slice it up like an apple. It’s the only way I know how to eat it,” he said.

Among the multitude of unusual plants at the Exotica Rare Fruit Nursery in Vista is the Perfume quince, which, according to plant expert Jessica Leaf, “is a wonderfully ornamental shrub.”

It is also drought and cold tolerant. “It actually thrives on neglect,” she says. The shrub bursts into a profusion of white or pink flowers and yields a pear-shaped fruit which can reach 5 inches in diameter and weigh up to a pound.

All those qualities make it a a great candidate for the garden, Leaf said.

Although quince can be savored out of hand, the fruit is usually stewed, or turned into a sweet paste. The fruit sports quite a tough skin. To eat a quince raw, or cook a quince, peel and core the fruit, and discard the inner seeds.

Dick and Margo Baughman, managers of Vista Farmers’ Market, 726-8545, 8 a.m.-11 a.m. Saturdays, corner of Eucalyptus and Escondido Avenues, Vista.

George Emerich, Emerich Gardens, 152 S. Stagecoach Lane, Fallbrook, 92028.

Cream of the Crop, 2009 South Hill Street, Oceanside, 433-2757, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Sunday. Quince available through November. Call for price.

Howard and Iran Jewett, Fallbrook, 92028. Vista Farmers’ Market, 8 a.m.-11 a.m. Saturdays, corner of Eucalyptus and Escondido Avenues, Vista.

Exotica Rare Fruit Nursery, 2508-B East Vista Way, Vista, 92084, 724-9093. Inventory sale through the end of October, open daily 10 a.m.-4 p.m. $15 for a five gallon plant.