Crab apple jelly
Tuesday, October 08, 2019
Crab apples look decidedly ugly and unappetizing. As someone who operates a blanket policy of hating small fruit, I would automatically have ignored crab apples even if they did look like perfect little examples. There's something good you can make with these unloved fruits, crab apple jelly!
There's a bountiful supply of them in hedgerows and just alongside roads (presumably where drivers have lobbed apple cores and a gnarly tree has grown) although of course, there's ever so many more out of reach than you can collect. On our second trip out to forage some we found the wind had taken most out of the trees and left them on the floor like giant perilous marbles - I nearly went base over apex to my horror.
We vowed to make use of some this year. Our first haul was decent, alongside our blackberry haul so C decided to make a crab apple and blackberry batch as well as a spiced crab apple batch.
Both have set perfectly and I find myself seeking it out to eat with chicken (sadly our redcurrants didn't materialise this year). They are much sweeter than expected and for that reason I think C will give it a wide berth by I don't mind. To be honest they would work as a sweet treat too, like little jellies as part of a dessert or on toast. Yum.
They both taste delicious and very different. So cheap to make too, just the price of sugar and a few store cupboard spices. We save jars and bottles furiously and acquire them from others too and have a decent preserving kit now.
On our second trip out to forage some we found the wind had taken most out of the trees and left them on the floor like giant perilous marbles - I nearly went base over apex to my horror.
There are so many varieties to make with crab apple as the base. Ones with herbs in, rowan, haw, blackberries... It does seem to be quite adaptable. It's not something you hear much about now but we're firmly set on foraging for treats. I'll be sharing some more of our makes in posts to come.
Take care,
Sophie
There's a bountiful supply of them in hedgerows and just alongside roads (presumably where drivers have lobbed apple cores and a gnarly tree has grown) although of course, there's ever so many more out of reach than you can collect. On our second trip out to forage some we found the wind had taken most out of the trees and left them on the floor like giant perilous marbles - I nearly went base over apex to my horror.
We vowed to make use of some this year. Our first haul was decent, alongside our blackberry haul so C decided to make a crab apple and blackberry batch as well as a spiced crab apple batch.
Both have set perfectly and I find myself seeking it out to eat with chicken (sadly our redcurrants didn't materialise this year). They are much sweeter than expected and for that reason I think C will give it a wide berth by I don't mind. To be honest they would work as a sweet treat too, like little jellies as part of a dessert or on toast. Yum.
They both taste delicious and very different. So cheap to make too, just the price of sugar and a few store cupboard spices. We save jars and bottles furiously and acquire them from others too and have a decent preserving kit now.
On our second trip out to forage some we found the wind had taken most out of the trees and left them on the floor like giant perilous marbles - I nearly went base over apex to my horror.
There are so many varieties to make with crab apple as the base. Ones with herbs in, rowan, haw, blackberries... It does seem to be quite adaptable. It's not something you hear much about now but we're firmly set on foraging for treats. I'll be sharing some more of our makes in posts to come.
Take care,
Sophie
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