Quince is a worthy addition to the garden and can be made into quince cheese.

I’ve spent the past week in New York City, with a little more fall foliage still standing. At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden there were the reds and golds of ornamental cherries and the soft yellows of the Fall Fiesta sugar maple.

We were spectators at the New York City Marathon, where 50,000 runners took in the still-glow acacia foliage.

In Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, a lesser-known Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park, we saw fields and paths filled with New Yorkers picnicking and hobnobbing.

At the Brooklyn Museum, tree murals graced the entrance, showcasing the environmental services trees provide.

Washington Square Park in Manhattan tinkled with guitars and mandolins reminiscent of the heyday of folk singing: and my grandson Miles now speaks conversationally as if Bob Dylan were a personal friend.

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governors island

The islands of New York City (estimated at over three dozen) intrigue me, and not just the obvious ones of Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and parts of Long Island. A gondola ride to Roosevelt Island (for the cost of a subway ride) offers a panoramic view of the East River and the Queensboro Bridge, and back to midtown Manhattan. Ellis Island is of great importance due to the energization of the United States of immigrants. Rikers Island: I have no immediate desire or need to visit.

So I enjoyed the half-mile ferry ride to Governors Island last week, from just south of Manhattan to this 172-acre island in New York Harbor. There were healthy slippery elms on Colonel’s Row, several fall-colored flaming sumacs on Lookout Point, acres and acres of lawns and a plane tree alley on the north circling-island trail across from the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. And the views: from Lookout Point is the Statue of Liberty, from Soissons Landing a full view of lower Manhattan, and additional views of New Jersey and Staten Island.

The Lenape tribe used the island as a fishing camp before settlers arrived. The Dutch bought it on the historic stretch of Manhattan, then the British installed their “governor” there and, after leaving in 1775, recaptured it by defeating George Washington at the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776. After the Revolutionary War, it was used by our new country as a military base, to house Confederate prisoners in the Civil War, as an army base developing a strategy for the Normandy invasion in World War II and as the largest installation of the US Coast Guard. USA in the 1960s.

Today, Governors Island is open year-round and is easily accessible by ferry. It has many sustainability projects including a net zero waste environmental policy, home to the Harbor School High School, arts foundations, an (expensive) glamping park for city visitors, many art projects including the sad and enraged sculpture “Moving Chains” by Charles Gaines that evokes slaves. -commercial ships within sight of the Statue of Liberty, and the billion-shell salvage project using oyster shells from New York City restaurants to restock oyster beds. Don’t miss the perimeter walk around the island, which offers plenty of views of New York City. Maybe not as comprehensive as Hokusai’s “36 Views of Mount Fuji”, but wow! The next island for me, Canarsie Pol, a small uninhabited island outside of Canarsie, Brooklyn that can be reached by kayak.

Quince

Quince, oblong quinceis a member of the rose family, and should not be confused with quenomeles spp., a popular orange-flowered ornamental shrub.

Cydonia It is of Eurasian origin, native to the Caspian Sea area and the subject of Greek myths, including as an emblem of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. According to myths, the Greek nobleman Paris gave quince (the “golden apple”) to Aphrodite, who in turn promised Paris the beautiful Helen of Troy (the Judgment of Paris), starting the Trojan War.

These “golden apples” are a worthy shrub-to-small tree addition to your garden, looking somewhat like misshapen yellow apples or pears, and tart, somewhat astringent fruit made palatable with sugar and other jam ingredients.

I used to see the quince tree and fruits at FA Seiberling Nature Realm in Akron, and it did pretty well even with some bacterial fire blight disease.

I’ve tried my friend Scott Zanon’s version of quince jam and it’s interesting, though perhaps not a replacement for raspberry or strawberry jam for me: a bit original, but a nice complement to spicy cheeses.

When it forms into a firm red, stick-like gel, it becomes “Dulce de quince” or “quince cheese.”

Scott Zanon sent me a packet of commercial quince along with the jam; I must say that the quince paste combined with the Spanish manchego cheese is really delicious.

On Google, Amazon associate Kimberly Killebrew is quoted: “I will never forget the first time I tried quince. It was also the first time I tried quince. Oh, the aroma and the taste! It is one of the most unique and wonderful smells and flavors I have come across. It’s hard to describe. It’s nothing like apple or pear. The best word I can think of to describe the flavor is sweetly floral. It has a highly aromatic floral flavor, almost as if it were made with essential oils of English wild roses. Having tried the quince, I now understand why the quince in ancient times was considered a fruit of the gods. It’s divine.

Cyclamen

Returning to Ohio, we were again wowed by the bloom and bud of a florist’s cyclamen (cyclamen peach) on our windowsill. It has flourished there after the purchase from Graf Growers over a decade ago.

This frost-sensitive species of cyclamen thrives in cool, sunny conditions, which I learned growing thousands of years ago as a manager of a greenhouse in Denver, where we located them near cooling pads. I suspect they were especially happy in our Ohio home with the heat turned off while we were gone.

The cyclamen genus belongs to the primrose family and has 23 species, mostly from the Mediterranean area.

The florist’s cyclamen has circular tubers, variegated green and silver leaves, downward-arching flower stalks (peduncles), and white, pink, or purple flowers, with elegantly upturned flowers with a downward-pointing nose.

In outdoor environments, ants disperse seeds (myrmecochory), carry the seeds away, then eat sticky coatings and discard the seeds.

As noted, the typical florist’s cyclamen is not winter hardy here, but other species are, and they should be sending up little fall flowers now.

There is an excellent Akron Zoo article on the web. He points out that his hardy cyclamen at the zoo are west of the conservation carousel.

Speaking of zoos, the Ohio State University Insect Zoo in the Wooster College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (below) has a large sign with a quote from Bradley Miller, founder of the Humane Farming Association: “Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar.”