Late in the summer, some of the fruit trees that haven't already given up their fruit earlier in the year at Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Farm -- an historic site containing some of the plant "experiments" of the famed plant-breeder, Luther Burbank (1850s-1920s) in Sebastopol, Northern California -- start to ripen... Among these are the gorgeous "Chinese Quince" fruits...
Here are two perfect, ripening Chinese quinces... They are huge fruit when completely ripe and shaped rather like footballs! If you've never had "Chinese Quince Jelly", you're really missing something! It has a wonderful garnet color and is SO TASTY!
I call the Chinese Quince trees the "Giraffe Trees" because of the nature of the mottling of their bark...
Here's another shot of the Chinese quince -- showing more of the rapidly yellowing foliage:
The foliage in the shady areas hasn't yet begun of feel the breath of autumn as much as those leaves that are in the sun...
Looking up through the branches of the Chinese Quince trees, you can see some of the green fruit still in the ripening process:
Another of the late-summer fruits ripening at Burbank's Farm are the "Catalina Cherries". These cherry trees are native only to Catalina Island -- off the coast of Southern California -- and their fruit ripens considerably later than regular cherries.
They are hardy, drought-tolerant plants that can take cold temperatures and are extremely resistant to the insects and diseases that plague many of the other stone fruits -- and their fruit is quite edible. . . The only bad thing is that they have HUGE pits and very little fruit!
Here are a couple of shots of the Catalina Cherries showing both mature and immature fruit (I apologize for the terrible resolution of my little digital camera...):
Here's another shot of the cherries showing the rich, deep, dark-red color of the ripe fruit:
Another of the curious fruits that start to ripen about this time of year at Burbank's Farm are the "Trifoliate Oranges"... Native to Japan and frost-resistant down to -40-degrees F, you really wouldn't want to eat the fruits of these orange trees! They are small and fuzzy, pithy, full of seeds and quite bitter! They are usually used as "root stock" upon which are grafted other citrus fruit trees in order to make them hardier... Note the humongous thorns! (They always remind me of the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" and the thorns that grew up around her village when everyone was put to sleep by a magic spell!)
Thank-you for taking this little stroll with me through Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Farm... All of the volunteers there hope you can get out to Sebastopol sometime to see all of the wonderful plants for yourself! :o)
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Comments: 19
You're so VERY welcome! :o)
Thanks, Sue! It's strange, isn't it, how a lot of fruits and vegetables that were very popular back 100 or so years ago have become almost non-existent commercially anymore? I think quince jelly used to be about the only jelly that you could always get in cafes and dinner places like, say, during the days of the "Wild West"... If you ever get the chance to have some, though, you should try it... It's really GOOD! :o)
I'm glad you liked the article, Tinch! :o)
The Chinese Quinces look a lot like Feijoas to me, and I don't know if you are familiar with the name or the fruit. They are also a late summer fruit, and very sweet and sugary when ripe.
The quince are actually NOT very sugary... They are fairly acrid and, in order to make jelly or (as I have) "chutney" out of them, one must use a whole lot of sugar in the process...
Burbank's name SHOULD ring a bell -- he invented the Russet potato, the spineless cactus, the nectarine, the "plumcot" (apricot x plum now called "pluot" commercially...) and, perhaps the most well-known of his plant inventions, the "Shasta Daisy"...