Garden to Table - The poor, forgotten quince...

In Praise of the Misunderstood Quince

By Michael Tortorello New York Times. Published: May 2, 2012

Quince at the Cloisters Museum in New York. Photo by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

After half a century in public life, the most famous quince trees in New York are looking — let’s say mature. Or how about distinguished? No need to beat around the bush, said Deirdre Larkin, the horticulturist who tends the four beloved quinces at the Cloisters Museum and Gardens, along the Hudson River in Fort Tryon Park.  “They are old, and nothing will change that,” she said.  Yet in Europe, where the quince’s yellow pome is a culinary treasure, orchardists will buttress the sagging limbs with a crutch...But, Ms. Larkin said, “trees can live for hundreds of years.” ...

What most Americans know about quince (Cydonia oblonga) — if they know about quince at all — is that it was once a fixture in Grandma’s garden. O.K., Great-Great-Grandma’s garden. As long ago as 1922, the great New York pomologist U. P. Hedrick rued that “the quince, the ‘golden apple’ of the ancients, once dedicated to deities, and looked upon as the emblem of love and happiness, for centuries the favorite pome, is now neglected and the least esteemed of commonly cultivated tree-fruits.” Almost every Colonial kitchen garden had a quince tree. But there was seldom need for two, said Joseph Postman, the United States Department of Agriculture scientist who curates the quince collection in Corvallis, Ore. Settlers valued quince, above all, as a mother lode of pectin for making preserves. And for that task, a little fruit went a long way.

“If you put the seeds in a cup of water, it becomes almost like Jell-O,” Mr. Postman said. This goo doubled as a pomade...Like so many American workers, the quince lost its job to a disruptive technology: powdered gelatin, introduced by Charles Knox in the 1890s...Today the nation’s entire quince crop covers a paltry 250 acres ... By contrast, farmers this year will raise some 350,000 acres of apples and 96 million acres of corn.

Quince Jacques le Moyne de Morgues (c. 1533–1588)

So we arrive, perforce, at a fundamental question: Is raw quince edible? ... The skin, fuzzy at first, has an objectionable texture,...And when the flavor is not sour, it’s sour and astringent...The key to enjoying quince at home, apparently, is to cook it and cook it and cook it. At that point, the quince is ready to cook...

The quince tree is self-pollinating: you need only one. If you train the growth to a few trunks, a quince shouldn’t get much taller than a gardener can reach with a six-foot ladder.

By now, Mr. Postman has probably grown more varieties of quince than anyone else on the continent. The Corvallis germ-plasm repository contains 50 or 60 edible varieties, and provides material to researchers and plant breeders...When I spoke to Mr. Postman, in fact, the couple was driving across Arizona with a fresh quince cutting in the back seat. Mr. Postman had just stopped at the historic Mission San José de Tumacácori, about 20 miles north of the Mexican border. Researchers there have been replanting the neglected orchard with the forgotten fruit varieties of 17th-century Jesuit missionaries...

A bushel of good quince will fetch $2.50 at farmers’ markets in New Jersey. At least it did in the late 19th century, when the Rev. William W. Meech published Quince Culture, in 1825.  It is the definitive — and possibly the only — guide to cultivating the fruit.  You can read the updated 1888 version here.  or the original 1825 edition here ...

The portingegale Quince. John Tradescant (c 1570-1632) 1634 Plant List

 John Tradescant the elder (c 1570-1632)

A few random quince facts...

Apples (Malus communis, M. pumila, & M. sylvestris), pears (Pyrus communis) & quince (Cydonia oblonga) belong to the rose family.

The homeland of the quince lies between the Caspian Sea & the Black Sea, a mountainous region called the Caucasus that touches northern Turkey & Iran as well as Southern Georgia.

Mention of quince appears in Greek writings about 600 BCE as a ritual item in wedding ceremonies. Pliny mentioned the Mulvian variety, a cultivated quince, as the only one that could be eaten raw. Columella described three other varieties he names as the sparrow apple, golden apple, & the must apple.

Cultivation of the quince began in Mesopotamia, an area now Northern Iraq between the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers. Between 200 & 100 BCE, this "golden apple" was cultivated by the Greeks. The quince was cultivated prior to the apple & reached Palestine by 100 BCE.

Following the battles for power between the Arabs & the Byzantines circa 763 CE, the some Arabs traveled to Isfahan in Persia for quinces, apples, saffron, & salt.

Charlemagne was partly responsible for introducing the quince into France with his orders in the year 812 to plant quince trees in the royal garden.

Chaucer mentions quince using the name coines, a word that comes from the French coing.
 O mosy quince, hangyng by your stalke,
 The whyche no man dar pluk away ner take,
 Of all the folk that passe forby or walke,
 Your flowres fresshe be fallyn away and shake.
 I am ryght sory, masteras, for your sake,
 Ye seme a thyng that all men have forgotyn;
 Ye be so rype ye wex almost rotyn.

When European & Near Eastern immigrants began to settle in the New World, they planted quince in North America.

Quince enjoyed the spotlight only briefly during the colonial period in New England. A March 16, 1629 entry in the Massachusetts Bay Colony's Memorandum listed quince as one of the seeds requested from England.

By 1720, quince was thriving in Virginia. Many home gardens throughout the colonies were reaping a fall harvest from their quince trees; however, apples quickly snatched the spotlight from the quinces. Americans had become accustomed to sweet fruits like the apple & found little about the quince to favor.

Quince cheese, an old New England specialty of the 1700's, required all-day boiling of quince preserves to achieve a solidified state, probably similar to the French specialty cotignac.

Quince grew traveling legs as the westward movement took hold in the United States. In the 1850's a Texan, who owned a large land grant, grew many fruit trees on his property. Among them was quince, along with peach, fig, raspberry, pomegranate, & plum.

Quince Folklore...

Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, was known to consider apples sacred. Historians believe the apple favored by Aphdrodite were really quince. The legendary golden apple of Hesperides that Paris gave to Aphrodite was really a quince.

The ancient Greeks considered quinces to be the symbol of fertility & dedicated them to the goddess of love.

An Athenian wedding tradition of the ancient Greeks had friends & family tossing quinces into the bridal chariot as the groom was escorting his bride to her new home. Once they arrived, the bride ate a ceremonial cake flavored with honey & sesame. To insure fertility, she was then presented a quince.

One myth says that pregnant women who indulge their appetites in generous quantities of quinces will give birth to industrious & highly intelligent children.

Quince Cooking...

Apicius, Rome's first cookbook author, first century CE, preserved whole quinces with their stems & leaves attached in a bath of honey diluted with defrutum, a newly prepared wine that is spiced & reduced by boiling.  Another quince dish prepared by Apicius, Patina de Cydoniis, combines them with leeks, honey, &broth in hot oil.

The earliest true preserves came about during classical times when quinces were cooked with honey & vinegar, a combination that produced a gel or pectin-like quality.

From the15th century to the present, Cotignac d'Orleans, a clear gel made from boiled quince juice & sugar, is set into small wooden boxes to form confections. These treats were originally presented to French royalty in honor of their visit to cities & outlying villages.

When Joan of Arc arrived in Orleans in 1429, to liberate the French from the English, she received the honored gift of cotignac.

The English, during the 16th & 17th centuries, delighted in preparing many variations of quince preserves which they called quidoniac, quiddony, marmelade or paste of Genoa. The preserves formed a thick paste that could be shaped into animals or flower forms. Though the quince paste is rarely found in England today, a coarse version, called membrillo, is a favorite treat presently served along with cheese in Spain.

In 1570, Pope Pius V gave a spectacular banquet that featured as its piece de resistance, a quince pastry that required "one quince per pastry."

In Britain, quince was incorporated into the cuisine in various pies & tarts. The British also prepared a sauce made from quince that became a traditional accompaniment to roasted partridge.

Although the most favored quince marmalade, called marmelada, originated Portugal during the 1500's, the British were preparing many versions of marmalade from quince well into the 1600's.

For even more on quince, see Vegetrians in Paradise

History Blooms at Monticello - Sword Flag

Sword Flag or Corn Flag (Gladiolus communis ssp. byzantinus)

This species of Gladiolus, native to the Mediterranean region, is delicate and small-flowered compared to our modern hybrids. Sword Flags also tend to be more winter hardy. John Parkinson’s Herbal, published in London in 1629, provides the first description, and it was growing in American gardens by 1800. 

Thomas Jefferson received 12 hardy Gladiolus bulbs from Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon in 1812. G. communis ssp. byzantinus will slowly naturalize in the garden.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

Botany - 19th-Century American Fruit Illustrations

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Taking a break from art history. Each year at this time, I long to be outdoors in a garden somewhere or reading about gardens. I will take you along with me this spring...

This interesting insight into history & these lovely illustrations are from an article on America's 19th-century nurserymen from the Smithsonian Magazine of August 2011. Yale historian Daniel J Kevles writes "How to Trademark a Fruit: To protect the fruits of their labor and thwart 'plant thieves,' early American growers enlisted artists."

Red Astrachan Apple

Kelvles' begins his story in 1847, when Charles M. Hovey, owner of a 40-acre nursery in Cambridge, Masschusetts, began distributing a series of prints of American fruits. In 1852 & 1856, Hovey published his series of prints as The Fruits of America, Volume 1 & 2. Hovey borrowed the tactic of America's 1st important 19th-century garden author (1806) Bernard M'Mahon by declaring that he felt "a national pride in portraying the“delicious fruits...in our own country, many of them surpassed by none of foreign growth, thus demonstrating the developing “skill of our Pomologists” to the “cultivators of the world.”

William Prestele's Michaux Grape

Since the end of the American Revolution commercial seed & nursery entrepreneurs had been steadly growing in the United States. State horticultural societies began to organize at the end of the 18th-century; and in 1848, several of their leaders in the Eastern states gathered together to form the first national organization of fruit men—the American Pomological Society, named for Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruits.

William Hooker's Noblesse Peach.

Fruit growers knew that if they were to protect their new varieties of fruit from appropriation by others, they had to identify them. And so a body of American botanical art began to emerge. The American Pomological Society quickly established a Committee on Synonyms and a Catalogue, hopeful, as its president said, that an authoritative voice would be the best means of preventing those numerous impositions and frauds which, we regret to say, have been practiced upon our fellow citizens, by adventurous speculators or ignorant and unscrupulous venders.”

William Prestele's Wineberry, or Wine Raspberry

The worried fruit growers were aided in the efforts to publicize & lay claim to their varieties by the arrival in the United States in the late 1830s, of William Sharp, an English artist, immigrated to Boston with a printing technology, chromolithography, which enabled the production of multiple-colored pictures.

Some engaged an artist named Joseph Prestele, a German immigrant from Bavaria who had been a staff artist at the Royal Botanical Garden in Munich. He had been making a name for himself in the United States as a botanical illustrator of great clarity, accuracy and minuteness of detail.

Coe's Golden Gumdrop Plum

To learn of the development of these books & catalogues & the patent issues involved for both the large nursery operations & small firms as well, read Daniel J Kevles' article in the Smithsonian Magazine here.
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Plants in Early American Gardens - Golden Seal

Golden Seal (Hydrastis canadensis)

This Eastern North American perennial is found in rich, moist, marshy places in cool, deciduous forests. It was discovered and sent to Britain in 1759. Goldenseal’s yellow root was once used by Native Americans for dyeing a bright yellow color, as well as to produce a medicinal narcotic. 

Although this member of the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) is not found in the woodlands of Monticello, its cousin the Yellow Root, Xanthoriza simplicissima, grows along the banks of the Rivanna River and is a favorite species on Monticello’s “Saturdays in the Garden” wildflower walks every April.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

Nurseryman - Albert A Blanc 1850-1928

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Albert A. Blanc–(1850-1928)–Philadelphia, Pennsylvania–

Blanc was born in Belgium in 1850, and came to the United States in the early 1870s. He began as a cactus dealer and illustrated plant lists with his own woodcuts.

His Hints on Cacti, a combination cultural guide and trade catalog, was published in 1886. It was the first cactus catalog published in the United States.

He expanded a hobby into the world’s largest cactus nursery, and was considered to be the person responsible for starting the cactus craze of the 1890s. Other dealers were impressed with his illustrations, and by the 1890s he was selling thousands of illustrations to American and European companies.

Information from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries and private research.
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History Blooms at Monticello - Carolina Silverbell

Carolina Silverbell (Halesia tetraptera)

Halesia tetraptera is an understory tree that is native from West Virginia south to Florida and west to eastern Texas. It was named after Stephen Hale, (1677-1761) author of a famous work Vegetable Statics. Carolina Silverbell was introduced into Great Britain in 1756 and was called Snowdrop or Silverbell Tree. 

In a letter to John W. Eppes dated March 6, 1817, Thomas Jefferson indicated …” P.S. a Halesia sent. also purple and white figs.”

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

Painter Charles Willson Peale & His Sons as Naturalists & Scientists

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Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827)

Article from The Salisbury Times (now called The Delmarva Times), Salisbury, Maryland - July 17,1958 from the Delmarva Heritage Series, by Dr. William H. Wroten, Jr.

Charles Wilson Peale, besides being classed as a painter and patriot, was also a naturalist, founder of a famous museum, and writer. Besides his memoirs, and some other unpublished writings, he was the author of such works as "An Essay On Building Wooden Bridges," "Discourse Introductory To A Course of Lectures on the Science of Nature," "Introduction to a Course of Lectures on Natural History," "An Epistle to a Friend on the Means of Preserving Health," and "An Address to the Corporation and Citizens of Philadelphia."

After the Revolutionary War, during a period when economic conditions seemed rather unfavorable to the artist's profession, Peale came across the fact that the bones of a mammoth had been discovered in New York State. Friends suggested to Peale that he make his art gallery a repository also of natural curiosities. The idea appealed to him and such an arrangement was established. At one time the museum was even granted free use of the State House (Independence Hall) which, a short time before, had been vacated by the legislature. Later it became incorporated as the Philadelphia Museum. In its time this museum in scope and character was of the first rank.

Davy Crockett in 1834, during his travels to eastern cities, wrote, "... I was taken to Peale's museum. I shall not attempt to describe the curiosities here; it is above my bend. I could not help, however, thinking what pleasure of curiosity folks could take in sticking up whole rows of little bugs, and such like varmints, I saw a boy there that had been born without any arms or hands; and he took a pair of scissors in his toes, and cut his name in full, and gave it to me. This I call a miracle."

Mrs. Anne Royall, who was born in Maryland, paid a visit to the museum in the 1820's while in Philadelphia. "It may readily be supposed," she wrote, "that the idea of seeing a place so celebrated as the museum of Philadelphia, inspired me with no common curiosity: that, and the market to me, were objects of the first interest, which I had long and ardently wished to see. The museum is in Chestnut St., near the corner of S. 4th St. I soon discovered it by a sign, and after crossing a gallery, came to a staircase, wide enough to admit a wagon and team. I made but a few steps, before one of them springing under my fee, rung a bell to my great surprise, and upon gaining the stairs, I was met by a man whose business it is to receive the money paid, which is 25 cents. The first object of my inquiry was the mammoth skeleton, but I was greatly disappointed in its appearance. The skeleton is indeed large as is represented, but it had not that formidable, dread-inspiring aspect which my romantic turn led me to expect and with which I expected to be overwhelmed: I beheld it without surprise or emotion. It is standing upon its feet in a small room, which is lighted by a large window, enclosed with a rail as high as one's breast, and presenting its side foremost. The whole has a very dark appearance, and in many parts it is quite black. In some instances the bone is as hard as iron, while other parts seem to be in a moulding condition ... Although I was not thrown into hysterics at the sight of the mammoth skeleton, I found enough of the marvelous in the museum to remunerate for the disappointment. Amongst these were the sea-lion, the skeleton of a horse, which when living, measured 20 hands in height, with a human figure on its back'. A sheep weighing 214 lbs., the devil-fish - in short, ten thousand things wonderful and pleasing, including 200 portraits of our most distinguished men. Of all the portraits, I was particularly struck with those of Commodore Perry, Doctor Rush, Latrobe, and Albert Gallatin."

The museum was founded by Mr. Peale in 1784; this indefatigable man has done more since that time, than one would suppose could be done by a whole nation - the collection is endless ... After paying once, you have free liberty of the museum as often as you choose to call."

Despite the shortcomings expressed by such travelers as Davy Crockett and Mrs. Anne Royall, the educational aspect of the museum was developed for Peale's staff included professional men in zoology, comparative anatomy and mineralogy. In exhibiting his wild life he added a semblance of natural habitat, an interesting innovation. His museum became so famous that it tended to obscure his career as a portrait painter.

Although Peale more or less retired in the 1790's he continued to do some painting to enlarge his portrait gallery and to acquire the money for the museum, which depended mainly on his purse. After 1810, when he retired to his country home, his sons, who were trained naturalists, relieved him of the active supervision of the museum.

Some of the famous sons of Charles Wilson Peale by his first wife were Raphael and Rembrandt, painters, and Titian and Rubens, naturalists. Two sons of the second marriage, Franklin and Titian Ramsay (named after his half-brother who died during a yellow fever epidemic in 1789) were trained naturalists.

Rembrandt Peale (American artist, 1778-1860)

Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860) like his father, was a famous portrait painter, who also had the opportunity of studying under Benjamin West in England. Although he produced numerous portraits and historical works, he had the misfortune to live at a time when America was not demonstrating much artistic interest. Horace Wells Sellers says, "Technically, Rembrandt Peale may have been a better painter than his father, but not one of his canvases exhibits the charm and decorative qualities of those of the elder Peale ... as a result his portraits while good likenesses, are perfunctory."

Most people of Maryland, and the United States in general, will not associate Rembrandt Peale with his paintings but with his gallery and museum in Baltimore. His father tried to discourage him from establishing such an undertaking in Baltimore but the son was determined to do so, and to found, if possible, an academy for teaching the fine arts. The building was erected, and he opened his exhibits in 1814. Paul Wilstach, in Tidewater Maryland, said, "The brothers opened the museum the same year that the streets of an American city first flamed here with 'carbureted hydrogen gas,'" and in the advertisement of the museum, Peale made a point of the fact that it, too was illuminated by "Gas Light - Without oil, Tallow, Wick or Smoke."

Rembrandt tried to maintain his museum on the same basis of his father's, but the support of the people was not sufficient and finally his brother Rubens, the naturalist, who had managed the one in Philadelphia, came to take over.

Reubens Peale with a Geranium by his brother Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860)

Rembrandt Peale was probably the most famous of Charles Willson Peale's sons, but Raphael (1774-1825) achieved success as a painter of miniatures and for his still-life canvases. He also painted with his brother Rembrandt; working together in the 1790's they attempted to establish a portrait gallery of distinguished persons in Baltimore.

Although Titian Ramsay (1799-1885) was somewhat of an artist, he is more famous as a naturalist and director of museums of natural history. He traveled on various expeditions painting, studying, and collecting specimens. He traveled to the coast of Georgia and Florida, the Upper Missouri River region, South America, and the South Seas.

Titian Ramsay Peale 1819

Much space has been devoted to the Charles Wilson Peale family, and rightfully so, but mention must be given to his brother and family. James Peale (1749-1831), born in Chestertown, Md., was the youngest son of Margaret and Charles Peale. He was taught not only the art of the saddler but that of the painter by his more famous brother, James, too, served in the Revolutionary War, first with Smallwood's Maryland Regiment and later with the First Maryland, in which he reached the rank of captain.

After the war he left Maryland to live with Charles in Philadelphia, where he met and married Mary Claypoole, the daughter of James Claypoole, another artist. Although he painted portraits and landscapes, he is best known as a painter of miniatures. He followed mainly the style of Charles Wilson Peale.

James Peale (American, 1749-1831)

James' only son became a banker, but tow of his five daughters, Sarah Miriam and Anna Claypoole Peale became painters. Sarah Miriam became a portrait painter, most famous probably for her canvas of Lafayette in 1825, while Anna painted miniatures but not quite the equal of either her father or uncle.
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