What do you know about growing quince ?

One of the fruiting trees I planted 3 years ago was a Russian Quince. This year it has 2 dozen large, hard beautiful fuzzy fruits. Does anyone have experience - when to pick - how to process ? I don't think I have enough for making paste but I want to maximize the use of those that I have.
I've been reading on line but first hand experience fills in the gaps.
This has been the "leap" year for my fruiting trees, vine and shrubs. I did not anticipate the added advantages ---siginificant improvement in bird life and butterfly traffic. It has been very rewarding.

Some thoughts here http://www.wine-pages.com/cgi-bin2/ulti ... 261#000000

In addition, I note forumite Martin Zwick-Barz posted a Quince Tart recipe a while back on the WP forum, though the link is now dead. Maybe he still has the recipe.

regards

Ian

We've made quince tarts a bunch of times and they've been delicious. I've also made quince paste (membrillo) once and that was good as well. Unfortunately, we've never grown our own.

A little quince paste on top of some Gouda is really tastety!

Hi Christina
I have no experience growing quinces but if they spell fragrant that should be a good sign!
Also I have made quince paste a number of times and get an amazing quantity from 2 or 3 fruit (I usually get ones that are about 12 or so centimetres in length.) because of the amount of sugar used. So if you have a few to spare, do give it a go as it will be just sensational on your cheese board for the rest of the year.

We've made quince tarts a bunch of times and they've been delicious. I've also made quince paste (membrillo) once and that was good as well. Unfortunately, we've never grown our own.

With a cheese plate I like membrillo even more than fig preserves.

When I saw the title of your tread, I thought you meant how to tend to the quince plant. The answer to that is to prune it regularly. We had one at our place in Portsmouth that we planted in '77 and kept it pruned until '82 when we left. It is now three stories high!