Qunice butter

I am making quince butter in my crockpot. I've already cooked it 12 hours. There are about 4 to 10 more hours to go. I hope it will be good. I got the recipe for quince butter here.

I decided to make quince butter because last year at the La Huerta garden we sampled the quinces. They were not good to eat off the tree. They are sort of woody.

The following week, several of the ladies who work at the garden brought in better ways to taste the quince. One brought in a store-bought quince paste, which was kind of like an aspic in a can. It was quite tasty. Another brought in homemade quince butter. It was rich and spicy. We ate it with crackers and fancy cheese. Wow, amazing!

Update: I completed my quince butter. The recipe said to save 2 cups of the sauce and then cook down the sauce with the lid of the crockpot slightly askew. That seemed to work, but when I put the 2 cups of sauce back in, the sauce would not continue to cook down. I tried to cook it for several more hours but it never cooked down. So I figured that would be as good as it gets.

Then I decided to try canning it because there was so much. I have never canned anything before. I bought some small mason jars and put the sauce/butter (it's a little more like sauce than butter) into ten of the jars and boiled them for 20 minutes. Seemed to work.

The quince butter tastes yummy by the way. It's like applesauce but with a richer, spicier flavor.

Ode to Jeepin' Jelly

Searching in my pantry
I spied a tiny jar
the label said "Jeepin' jelly"
the jar had traveled far

I pried off the top
the purple goodness gleamed
the toaster went pop
the warm bagel steamed

Upon my bagel halves
I spread the jelly thick
This tiny little jar
would probably be eaten quick

I bit into the toast
the flavor hit my mouth
sweet and tart berries
had traveled way far south

To enhance my boring breakfast
with wildness and bears
and memories of Mom's vacation
in Alaska without cares.

Later I learned that my mother did not get the berries from Alaska. They came from the Feather River valley in California. But there were bears there!