Believe me, there were a lot of things that I had never eaten before I came to Switzerland. Foods I didn’t even know existed. Not that all Americans are so food-dumb, I think it was just me. Here are two fruits I had never heard of in the States.
Quince
I knew Ben liked a jelly called ‘quitten’ in German. If he told me what that was in English it didn’t stick because I had never heard of quince. It tasted a bit like apple jelly, but honestly I stayed away from it. Apple jelly wasn’t really my thing. Our backyard in our new home in Lengnau had a huge, old quince tree. What kind of tree? Quince, like the jelly.
I was completely taken in by this ‘exotic’ tree. Then the enormous, old tree blossomed and had a huge harvest the first fall we were here. I was clueless as what to do with the 600 pounds of fruit. When I was talking to my aunts in Georgia I mentioned the tree. They said, sure, they knew what quince was, they had a quince tree in their back yard. Obviously I had a deficit.
So, what in the world do you do with quince? Jelly. Well, no. I’m not one who makes jelly. Unfortunately you can’t just pick a quince off the tree and eat it like an apple. You might break your teeth. Those things are hard. The previous owners of our home said they made liquor they even gave us a liter or two. We thought, sure, we can do that.
Quince Harvest
So in the fall, we harvested the fruit. Not really knowing how to do this, we would shake a branch and duck. Trying not to get hit by too many falling fruit. It was a technique that we perfected throughout the years. Then we cut the fruit and put it into a kitchen mixer. This took an enormous amount of time and left us with very sore muscles. Did I mention that the fruit was hard? The following years we put them through a garden mulcher, much easier on the muscles and faster, too. Then we put the cut fruit along with some sugar into a container and let it ferment. In Switzerland not everyone is allowed to make alcohol. So a couple of months later we brought the barrels to an official distillery who made the liquor.
Although the tree was old and hollow it produced a huge amount of fruit. One of the branches broke under the weight of the fruit. We bought a pole to set under the branch to use as a crutch. Still, we were afraid the tree was going to get blown down in a big storm. Thinking a falling tree might hit the neighbor’s car, or worse yet our neighbor, we made a decision. With a heavy heart we decided to take the tree down. About a month after we fell the tree there was a huge storm and we’re sure it would have fallen. It was a good, but sad decision.
We still have quite a few liters of liquor. Fruit from days gone by.
Zwetschgen
My first encounter with this fruit was when I ate what is called four-fruit jelly. I thought this was the best jelly I had ever tasted. I had no idea which four fruits were included, but it was good. Somewhere along the way I more or less stopped eating jelly so which fruits were in it didn’t really matter. Later I found out that the fruit that gave it the taste I liked was ‘Zwetschgen’.
The first time I remember hearing the word ‘Zwetschgen’ was when Ben’s mother asked me to pick some up for her at the store. I was clueless as exactly what to look for. I asked Ben what they looked like. He said a little larger than a golf ball, the shape of a football and purple. The only thing I found similar to that were plums, but somehow they didn’t fit the bill. I didn’t find any of this strange fruit. As it turned out the ‘zwetschgen’ season was over, there were no more at the store.
Zwetschgen Close up and Personal
Several years later after we moved to Lengnau some friends who live in the neighboring village invited us to dinner. It was a lovely. They served grilled chicken with fresh vegetables. For dessert they brought out a rather unspectacular Swiss pie. It was a crust with fruit laid on the bottom with just a hint of sauce in it. I recognized the basic pie type from the Swiss apple pies I had learned to make. As a good visitor I was taught that you eat what is put in front of you. Which I did.
It was the beginning of a love story. I couldn’t believe how good this was. I asked what kind of fruit it was. Zwetschgen. What is ‘Zwetschgen’ in English? Well, they belong to the plum family. It must be on the Swiss side of the plum family because it seems there is no English translation. Zwetschgen are Zwetschgen, but I guess plum will have to do for lack of a better word. I don’t normally ask for seconds on desserts, but I did that time. Luckily there was a piece left. I was caught, hook, line and sinker I had to have more of this fruit.
I asked how to make that delicious pie with the sauce. Our friends looked at each other and laughed. ‘Well, you take the dough, put it in the pan and put the fruit on top. Put it in the oven and bake.’ Really difficult. And the sauce? That was just the juice from the fruit, it makes itself. The rest of the season we must have had Zwetschgen pie at least once, if not twice a week. My poor husband Ben, but as always, he took it with humor.
Zwetschgen in Lengnau
I had to have more so we bought a zwetschgen tree for our backyard. Like the quince tree it too, makes beautiful blossoms in the spring. The following year we had one zwetschgen pie from our very own tree. I believe the first year it grew a total of 12 zwetschgen. Year after year our tree has grown. Now it produces so much fruit that we have zwetschgen the whole year round. We had to buy a freezer to preserve the fruit. We might even have enough to make a couple of liters of liquor. But I like the fruit unfermented best.
I don’t have too many things I make with zwetschgen, but I do eat them daily. I make an apple-zweschgen sauce that I put in my breakfast muesli. (https://cowbellsandchocolate.com/amazing-swiss-inventions/) ‘Plum’ is the word I used in the post, but I use zwetschgen. I make lots of pies and when we get tired of those, I’m sure I’ll come up with other things. Yum, yum, yum.
The take home message here: always be open to try something new. You never know, it might bring a whole new dimension into your life.
-
-