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Edith Walden is the Quince Queen

On Guemes Island in Washington state, Edith Walden started her quince journey in 1995 and soon became known as the Quince Queen. The island is short ferry ride from Anacortes and the land itself where Edith has her orchard of quince, apples, pears and more fruit was once the homestead of the Mathew Brothers and dates back to 1858. As such there is a 160 year old Gravenstein apple tree that sits in the center of the orchard. Edith calls it the Mother Tree.

The Quince Queen founded Willowrose Bay, Inc selling her magnificient quince to Whole Foods and regional cider makers

Edith to the left with friend harvesting quince

In this Chat

How Edith became the Quince Queen
Growing Quince
She spaced her trees 9’ and 12’ apart
Quince pests
Varieties of Quince and their viability for retail and cider
- Aromatnaya
- Cooke’s Jumbo -Golden and breed by California grower
- Havran, Havran II, Havran III (unknown true variety)
- Kuanching – Chinese, small, susceptible to blossom end root
- Kuganskaya – Russian, Edith loves this variety
- Meech’s Prolific -bred by Mr Meech, tasty – has a black spot on it – good for cider
- Queen’s – sweet by not prolific, maybe better grown in other areas
- Smyrna – too small for retail – though sweet
- Tashkent – Turkish
- Van Deman – bred by Luther Burbank in California
- Zvezdnaia – Russian , Jerry Lehman out of Ohio, said great for cider – huge & apple shape
The future of Willowrose Bay Inc for the Quince Queen

The quince orchard of Willowrose Bay Inc

Quince Books

Quince Culture: An Illustrated Hand-Book for the Propagation and Cultivation of the Quince
- - Author Willam Meech, named a quince variety after himself. This is the consummat book on growing Quince and dates back to the 1800’s
Simply Quince by the Queen of Quince, Barbara Ghazarian, a quince cookbook