Know your quince, before you take a bite
Maybe you've seen quince jelly on the grocery shelf -- and then taken a look at that quince bush outside.
Can you eat the fruit hanging from the bush? That all depends on how hungry you are, and what sort of quince you've got.
Flowering quince
Most quinces that you see are flowering quinces, a species grown mostly as an ornamental. Way back in spring, large salmon-pink, scarlet, or sometimes white blossoms graced the thorny tangle of branches. The leaves, emerging reddish in spring and then turning glossy green, are also attractive.
But flowering quinces' fruits, yellowish green with a hint of red, are rock hard. You could get your teeth into it, but don't bite -- the flavor will pucker your lips horribly. The fruits do have a spicy aroma, though, and if you really want to eat them, boil them with plenty of sugar and make jam. (Alternatively, stick a fruit with whole cloves and hang it on a string to perfume a closet.)
Chinese flowering quince
Another flowering quince, this one called Chinese flowering quince, bears large, egg-shaped, yellow fruits, also very fragrant and hardly edible. The plant's showy bark is a patchwork of gray, green, and brown, much like sycamore. This quince is relatively rare.
True quince
Now we come to the truly edible -- and only occasionally planted these days -- "true quince." True quince fruits are the size of softballs and look something like muscular Golden Delicious apples covered with fuzzy, bright yellow skins. This fruit has been cultivated since antiquity, and it comes in a few different varieties.
True quince fruits are edible right off the tree although they're somewhat dry and tart. But cook it up with just a little sweetener and you have a delectable, tangy sauce or jelly. Or add pizazz to an apple pie or a batch of apple sauce by throwing in a few slices of quince.
True quince is less flamboyant, but every bit as pretty as the flowering quinces. With just a few main stems or trunks, it never grows more than about 10 feet tall and unfolds large, solitary white blossoms in spring.