Quince blossom in the north west of Tenerife, yet I still can't seem to get away from Greek mythology. The Canary Islands - no strangers to myths themselves - are traditionally associated with the Islands of Fortune, in which the garden of the Hesperides is where Hera grew her immortality-bestowing golden apples.
Many references translated to "apple", such as the fruit in the Garden of Eden, may have been a quince. The 'golden Apples' of Virgil are said to be quinces, as they were the only 'golden' fruit known in his time. Columella mentioned the "golden apple" that may have been the paradisiacal fruit in the Garden of the Hesperides.
Yesterday, we met the never-sleeping, hundred-headed dragon that was supposedly placed in the garden to stop the Hesperides from plucking these fruit. Pliny speaks at length of the medicinal virtues of the quince (he also wrote about the Canary Islands and that the name "Canary" derives from the Latin word canis, meaning "dog"), so why not?
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