As luck will eventually have it — and trust me on this — our quest for quince will have a happy ending..
Today, we have two new takes and more input on the subject amounting to sort of a good news/bad news situation.
On the up side, longtime Forum helper-outer Suzanne Ramsey in Freeland has come up with a couple of “right place, right time” possibilities.
“I have seen fresh quince in Whidbey grocery stores,” she says. “Or drive to the Yakima Valley and look near an apple orchard for a quince tree.”
Another up side comes to us courtesy of Mark McIntyre of the Cascade Harvest Coalition. We can thank Mark for putting us onto Willowrose Bay, an organic orchard in the Anacortes area that produces the very type of quince Dean Tuininga and an ever-growing multitude of Forum cooks are longing to lay hands on.
By the way, tree-ripened quince, I’m told by the powers that be at Willowrose Bay, not only have a one-of-a-kind flavor all their own, but an intense, intoxicating fragrance as well. A far cry, really, from the type of fruit some of us have occasionally plucked from quince bushes in our yards.
Good news: Willowrose Bay grows and markets locally not just one, but several varieties of organic, tree-ripened quince that are normally seasonally available at selected markets, both in Skagit County and Seattle.
Bad news: Unless a weather miracle happens, there may be no quince crop this year. None. Nada.
Because of the long, almost endless winter that finally and only grudgingly gave way to a late, unusually cold spring, the growing season was then further futzed up by a weird, nearly nonexistent summer, and now the fruit is not — heavy emphasis on NOT here — coming along as it usually does. It simply did not set on, develop and grow as it should/would have normally.
Worse yet, we seem to have fallen into one of those regrettable, chilly autumns.
Does this combination mean the quince crop is doomed? Maybe. Probably.
Fact: In an average year, the annual quince harvest at Willowrose Bay begins the end of September and continues throughout October, with some fruit usually still available up to December. But not this year.
Bottom line? No fresh quince. Zero. Zip. Oh no, oh woe.
But wait! More good news: Willowrose Bay also makes and markets quince specialties — a whole array of them: quince jelly, ambrosia (a fruit spread), quince marmalade, quince butter, even quince syrup.
Best yet, this assortment of goodies is available right now, all bearing the Willowrose Bay label, at two relatively close, if somewhat off-the-beaten-path locations, Rexville Grocery, 19271 Best Road, in the Mount Vernon area, and Anderson’s General Store, 7885 Guemes Island Road, on Guemes Island, a short ferry ride from Anacortes.
Easier yet, try the Skagit Valley Co-op in downtown Mount Vernon. The building, at 202 S. First, is wrapped around a street corner with on-site parking, and you don’t need to be a member of this co-op to shop there. In the produce section, you’ll find a dedicated display of the Willowrose Bay quince collection.
Other than some form of weather wizardry, it’s pretty much a wait-and-see proposition for fresh quince. Don’t give up yet, though — when the middle of October rolls around, I’ll be checking with Willowrose Bay again, for an update.
Meanwhile, if you just can’t wait, or have little or no faith whatsoever in the weather working in our favor, you’ve always got the option of buying some gobble-ready quince whatsit.
Send contributions and requests to Judyrae Kruse at the Forum, c/o The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206 or kruse@heraldnet.com.
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