When I was a little kid, my friend's backyard had a scraggly tree with ugly yellow fruits on it. We called it a quincy tree and his mom told us not to eat the fruit. As kids, we assumed it was poison.
Now that I'm back in SW Ontario, I went to look for the tree, and unfortunately it's gone (and so is my friend's old house). Yesterday I went to one of the orchards down the road from where I currently live and they were selling this fruit, which I immediately recognized. It is actually called a quince. I now believe the old lady that owned the house used the fruit to make jam.
These trees are actually native to Turkey and Iran. The trees grow almost anywhere but do well in southern ontario's climate as they require a long summer for the fruit to fully ripen. I read that older apple and pear orchards often planted a few quince trees. They are used to make marmelade and jams, and can be thrown into apple pies to enhance the flavour. The fruit is a bit bigger than an apple.
The fruit smells like when you cut into an apple, but very perfumey. It can't be eaten raw, but tastes good when cooked. I sliced them up and simmered them for about half an hour. It's kind of like a pear crossed with a peach but with a rose-like aroma. It's pretty good, I'm gonna grab a few more.
