On 11/12/07 23:00, in article ,
"Martin" wrote:

On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:48:58 +0000, Sacha
wrote:

On 11/12/07 16:58, in article ,
"Martin" wrote:

On 11 Dec 2007 15:36:05 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:


In article ,
Martin writes:
|
| www2.westsussex.gov.uk/environment/heritage/broadleaf_20.pdf
|
| "Straight from the tree quinces are inedible, bullet hard and sour"

And Chaenomeles are much more so. But they are not woody.

The one I tried to cut in half thinking it was a pear gave a good impression
of
being woody. It was both hard and brown inside.

Not being rude, Martin but have you encountered a true quince (Cydonia)?

We used to have a bush of the apple type quince in our garden.

I
know the received wisdom is that they're like pears but IME they're fatter
towards the base

That depends on which is the top and which is base :-)

and more 'knobbly' on the outside in the sense of being
irregular with dips and dimples in them. The ones I've seen are also very
golden yellow in colour.

The woman who gave us the pear shaped ones planted the tree they grew on, so I
guess we can take her word for it that they were quinces.

Probably! But which? Both are called quinces and some Chaenomeles are a bit
pear shaped e.g. 'Kalif'. Chaenomeles is described as 'the wood fruit' in
Chinese medicine.True Cydonia quinces are what many compare to pears and are
larger than pears, IME. But IME is founded on a very old tree owned by a
friend. Younger trees might bear smaller fruit - I don't know.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'