Quincebell Marmalade House — Fruit Preserve Dragons Reference Sheet

The story of Quincebell Marmalade House

A fictional story inspired by the artwork.

The jar on the highest shelf glowed through three layers of brown wrapping paper. Nobody at Quincebell remembered making it. The batch book said only that somebody with very sticky fingers had been responsible. There were six sets of sticky fingers in the kitchen, and each dragon blamed the other five.

At closing time they took the jar outside. A pale stripe appeared in the marmalade and pointed toward the orchard. They carried it between the rows until the stripe bent toward a tree with a split trunk. Inside the split lay a copper ladle worn almost thin enough to see through.

Grandmother Quince had tucked it there when she retired. The dragons remembered how she used to scrape the pan until the last spoonful caught the light. Her grandson dipped the old ladle into the jar. A little of yesterday’s sunshine gathered in the bowl and lit up the kitchen wall.

They set the jar on a low sill beside the road. People coming home after dark could see the bend before they reached it. In the morning the wrapping paper lay beside the empty glass, covered with the names of travelers who had stopped for a taste. The dragons pasted it into the batch book and put a fresh pot on the stove.

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