News from Karin's Kitchen

This has been many years in the making. As some of you know, I love quince jelly. For years I have been trying to find the jelly, or, since that was not successful, I tried to find quince to make it myself. It is something that seems to be only available on the East coast ( I have seen Martha use it on TV), which is surprising, because it is usually grown where they grow apples and we live in Washington after all (for all you, who don't know, Washington is the largest producer of apples in the US). Well, obviously not for quince. I guess there is just no market. So, about 4 years ago I decided to grow my own and planted a quince tree. Last year I had my first crop with 4 pieces of fruit. This year I had 10 pounds - I am not daring to think how much we will have next year. I think we will be covered for the future!

A few weeks ago I spent a Saturday making various quince products. I cooked the fruit to get the juice for jelly. I used the pulp to make fruit leather. And I found a recipe for quince cake. That was very delicious. I will explore the cake side more next year. And then, off course, we enjoyed coffee from my new espresso machine. I can not even begin to tell you, how great it is to get good espresso in your own house.

Let me know, if anyone is interested in jelly or fruit leather. I have a lot!