The Quirky Quince

In the Anglosphere, many a plant is regarded as an aphrodisiac. However, in Germany numerous plants are considered beneficial for the bowels. This may explain the predominance of English across the world while the Teutonic languages languish in comparison.

It also might explain the sexual connotations of the fruit of such an unlikely member of the Rosaceae family, Cydonia oblonga, the quince. Borne on a small, six-metre tree, believed to have originated in northern Iran and adjoining Turkestan, the hard green fruit is full of seeds. While these have been utilized as a gum in cosmetics, the flesh has found use in conserves, pies and tarts – as well as an aphrodisiac. Earlier this year, the chatelaine of Alnwick Castle in northern England introduced one such marmalade, supposedly based on an 800-year-old recipe discovered the dungeons of her ancient rock pile. Jane Percy, the Duchess of Northumberland, is a famed plantswoman. Perhaps appropriately, Alnwick Castle stood in as Warthogs Academy in the recent highly acclaimed Harry Potter movies.

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Marmalade – taken from the Portuguese word for quince, ‘marmaello’ – was originally made from quince, explained Louise Gray in The Daily Telegraph. In medieval times she writes, it was believed that quince was the forbidden apple in the Garden of Eden that lured Eve. It was also the fruit of the Goddess of Love Aphrodite. The many seeds apparently suggested fertility. Nobody seems sure when quinces came to Britain. Four trees were recorded as being planted at the Tower of London by 1275. From there its appreciation was unbounded, perhaps reaching a peak when herbalist John Parkinson decorously lauded its ‘physical virtues.’ By Victorian times, Edward Lear was featuring his celebrated owl and # putting to sea in their ‘beautiful pea green boat.’ They dined, he claimed, on ‘slices of quince’ eaten with a ‘runcible spoon’ while the owl serenaded his feline friend on an abbreviated guitar. Alas, compared with apples, pears, strawberries and other fruits easily eaten out-of-hand, quince are notoriously tough subjects. Their high levels of tannin protect the attractive, bright yellow fruit from many pests but make for mouth puckering attributes unless well boiled and reduced to a stiff jelly. In the days before commercial pectin became commonly available, quince were valued as the basis for many a home produced jelly. Minus, it must be noted, of any reference to its alleged aphrodisiac properties. One has to wonder just what that owl and # had in mind . . . The related Japanese quince, Chaenomeles japonica, another member of the Rosaceae, is strictly an ornamental. While it makes a fine small hardy shrub, and an even better if somewhat thorny hedge, the prolific flowers rarely result in any fruit. Grimo Nut Farm, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario offers quince trees at $33 each. The trees are self-fertile so only a single specimen is necessary. Prolific, large pale pink flowers make for a magnificent spring display, worthy of any small city garden. Grimo also orchards them, presumably being at least one source of the fruit being seen in recent years in urban oriental green grocers such as Jimmy Lee on the south side of Toronto’s cosmopolitan Danforth Avenue near Main Street.