Team Inquinceable

By: Rayna, the Quinced

You might be wondering what in the world is “inquinceable?” Well, Ill tell you. The word comes from “quince,” which is a fruit. People describe it as a mix in between an apple and a pear. Sounds delicious and juicy, right? Unfortunately, that is a misconception. They are often very dry and bitter and if you are working on an organic farm, worm infested.
Maud´s farm, Finca Utama, has about 40 quince trees. This season has been so rainy that she has more fruit than she knows what to do with. A team of WWOOFers (World Wide Opportunites on Organic Farms) have been harvesting these quince. It´s harder than it sounds. Maud, being a sustainable thinker like us, does not want to see a single fruit rot. So what can we do with all of them? No one will eat them and they are quickly rotting as they fall in hundreds onto the ground. Well, we make delicious jams, jellies, juices, and a thick paste that we call “quince bread,”or “dulce de mebrillos.” Haha, simple. Wrong again!
These processes are several 12-hour days of chopping, drying, stirring, sifting, squeezing, sugaring and straining. For example, to make quince bread one must collect the ripest quince (the yellow ones) and cut hundreds of them into half. While chopping, it is important to get the rot out. After that, one must boil the halves in a pot the size of Rhode Island over a fire for about 2 hours. The quince are then soft enough to push through a sift (with really small holes) to make a sort of pulpy goo. Soon after, one adds half the amount in sugar and mixes it up.

Then comes more boiling. In another large pot with a large wooden spoon, that looks more like hockey stick, Team Inquinceable will take turns stirring the mixture over an open fire for about 7 hours. Once the paste is the right consistency and color, one pours the mixture into a wooden structure that creates blocks of quince bread. They dry for about a week and then one must cut the jam blocks out of the form and allow them to dry for a couple more days. When they are dry, you can wrap them up and give them to family and friends. Although this process is exhausting and long, it is reliving to know that no quince goes to waste. Even the parts that do not get used in the quince bread get boiled up and used to make jelly. Oh ya, and then the seeds get boiled again for jam. And of course we drink the extra juice. And then there is the dry quince for tea. And the rest goes to compost to make more beautiful and healthy quince trees for next year! What a great model of sustainability!