Quinces

Perhaps fortunately, the weather was horrible today, which stopped me going to the owl field. Instead, R and I worked through a raft of Christmas preparation, and having felt slightly unhinged over the past couple of days at the realisation that we're only three weeks away from the big eating and gifting fest, I'm now moderately confident that the situation is (more or less) under control. Let's hope I don't live to regret that assertion.

The quince tree in the wild garden has had a productive year, and the salad drawer of the fridge has been half-filled with aromatic quinces for the past six weeks, waiting for me to find the time and summon the energy to do something with them. Today we took four of the plumpest fruit and began the process of making dulce de membrillo. We'd hoped to finish it over the course of the day, but time ran away from us, and the boiling and baking stages can't safely be rushed, so they'll have to wait until tomorrow.

If you're interested, I detailed the recipes I use for dulce de membrillo and the quince jelly you can make from the strained cooking liquor in this blip.