Ayva is the Turkish word for "Quince". In Turkey, Ayva fruits are made into jams (Ayva Reçeli) and Ayva Tatlisi, a dessert made from Ayva in thick syrup and Ayva Kompostosu, Quince in thin syrup.
Ayva or Quince, one of the fruits that I have learned to love in Germany, may because of the fact that we have in our garden a Qince tree which bears so many fruits which I can make into a delicious "Quittenmarmelade" or Quince marmalade. At first, I didn't care about the abundant yellow fruits in our garden, althought they smell so good and beautiful with its yellow color, they are bitter and very Hard and even if I wait for months to harvest them ripe, it seems that they will never ripen. I was so disappointed at first, but one day while seeing how many fruits we have, I just thought that that I need to do something with this beautiful and sweet smelling fruit and thought that maybe I can turn them into something great.
What can I do with these sweet smelling fruits? Great "Quittenmarmelade" was the answer. As of now, 2010 summer is nearly over and soon it is Quitten harvesting time. My 2009 batch of Quittenmarmelade is soon finish, some of them my husband and I made as a gift last Christmas. My marmalade glasses are already waiting to be filled with this wonderful fruit. Also, I already found a recipe using my Quitten (Ayva, Quince), called Aya Tatlisi, a dessert from Turkey using quince, now I can not wait to harvest my Quitten.