QUINCE MARMALADE - ריבת חבושים

My friend Hilde, the garden fairy from Norway has inspired me to make marmalade. Please browse through her wonderful blog. 

 http://granheim2.blogspot.com

It is about many issues, but all of them are related to nature. She will take you to spiritual places and let you hear the whisper of ancient times. She will teach you about fruit and vegetables, herb plants and trees and flowers and berries, and she explains to you the healing power of stones. She works her big and beautiful garden mostly by herself and shares photos from it throughout the year. She dyes wool into soft and lovely colors with natural material, like leaves, vegetable and fruit, and then knits and crochets it into wonderful mittens, shawls and blankets. She is just amazing! I already learned so much from her. All the produce from her garden she turns into something, be it a salad, or a stew, or a cake, or cookies. She makes marmalade, juice, chutneys, cider, dried fruit, dried herbs, creams, ointment and healthy alternative medicine like liquid extracts from plants with curing attributes. I visit her blog almost every day and enjoy her stories, her teachings and photos.

So, when some days ago I saw quinces at the market, two things jumped into my head, a childhood memory of how I loved quince marmalade and the spirit of Hilde. I bought six of the pretty big sunny yellow fruit and six nice glass jars. At home I searched via the Internet for the easiest recipe. It said one to one rate fruit and sugar, and lemon juice, that was all. I washed the quince thoroughly, I did not peel it, quartered it, took out the core, cut it up into small cubes, mixed it with the sugar, added a bit of water and cooked it for about an hour and a half on low flame with no lid on the pot, then I strained it, mashed the fruit, put it back into the liquid, stirred and let it boil for another two minutes - and spooned it into the jars. 
Here are the three stages, from golden to orange to almost brown - each time a pretty color.

During the process the whole house smelled wonderfully! The marmalade turned out very tasty - Shabatt breakfast will be great!

Have a nice weekend - if you are around our home tomorrow morning, please step inside to join us for coffee and quince marmalade breakfast!