Autumn and quince puree

Today a funny thing happened. It was about 3pm, and I was picking quinces from the tree.I looked up through the netting and saw this grey fur in a hammock-like shape above me. As soon as I realised it was the quince thief it leapt down and flew off so fast that I couldn't get a good look to see whether it was a large rat or a small possum!
So I picked all the quinces, and composted the ones "it"  had gnawed. Wish I'd seen what it was, but it was so unexpected! We did catch a rat this morning in our alcatraz trap.

today's quince crop!

So here was the quince. You'd figure if the possums/rats are eating them raw they must be ripe.

So in they were brought, peeled and chopped. Put into a saucepan with a bit of water and stewed for about an hour. Then I added a quarter of a teaspoon of calcium and a teasp of pectin with a cup of sugar. That way it doesn't go lumpy. It didn't take long to thicken- just thick enough to add a few tablespoons to an apple crumble was the consistency I was aiming for. I also added a teaspoonful of pomegranate molasses to finish off the bottle. (It's lovely stuff in Tunisian food).



Then when the mixture was coolish I bagged it ready for the freezer. I got 8 bags and a generous few mouthfuls for the cook.


ready for the freezer

Jim reckons these look like Dorovitch's bodily samples...which rather takes away from the evening's work!!!

It would have been good to have made a paste rather than a puree,but I wanted to get it done quickly so pureed it is.

Autumn is really here. Today was one of the last swims in the pool this season. Nice though! It's not me in case you think I'm going topless....