Last weekend our friends Rob and Andrew brought us a few quince from their tree in East Vancouver. I'd never had quince before, so I immediately did a little research as I tried to decide what to do with them.

There are many, many recipes for quince jelly. But to be honest I am feeling a little over-preserved after a summer of crazy jamming and canning. Bread of biblical proportions would be required to eat up all the jam in this house, and so I'm afraid that making quince jelly was not something I entertained for even a fraction of a second.

Some of the recipes and blog postings about quince were most alarming. Because the fruit are very hard, there were stories of terrified bakers almost chopping their fingers off. I am the ultimate kitchen klutz, so anything that involves sharp knives, hard fruits, or very hot surfaces can easily put me off.

But lovely, wise, talented Michelle, my friend and our Assistant Editor, pooh-poohed all that. She assured me that a) I wasn't likely to lose any of my digits, and b) I didn't have to peel the things. She also suggested that because their flavour is quite perfumey, I might like to combine them with apples.

So I did. I made a quince-apple slightly sweet focaccia, with rosemary, sesame seeds and maple syrup. And it was lovely. She's right about the flavour, but I think I'm up for some of that floraliness solo. So at this moment I have a few more quince roasting in the oven with lemon rind and lemon juice, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, honey and sugar. I'm going to serve them for dessert with a little ricotta cheese.

A few things about quince. My research led me to expect my yellow fruit to turn a pinky red colour as they cooked. I found that prospect quite exciting, so I was a little disappointed when they didn't. Ah well. There are different types of quince, and these were larger than many, about like smallish pears. They were also covered with this sticky, webby fuzz. I washed it off all the quince as I prepared to make the focaccia, but only used one quince. Then this morning I found that the other quinces were starting to get brown marks. So I suspect that stuff was protecting them from oxidizing. Isn't nature amazing?