Japanese Quince!

When we first moved into our house, it was the beginning of the fall season. It didn't take long to realize that a rather sizeable bush at the corner of our house was a fruit bearing bush/tree of some sort. We puzzled over what it was. To me, it looked like a cross between a pear and an apple. The bush's branches had thorns with small leaves, and the fruit was yellowish with a pit in the center.

We were pleasantly delighted to find out that in the spring this bush flowers into a beautiful display of bright pinkish red flowers that look very much like apple blossoms, only red. Here is one of the pictures I took:

My sister also took a picture of the tree while it was blooming to see if anyone could tell us what the bush was. At last, someone shed some light on this for us! It is a Japanese Quince! It's not very common in the US anymore, but I did an online search and apparently it makes wonderful jams and jellies. I even found some baked dessert recipes for quince that I'll have to try in the fall.