Crab Apples?

jue

Iknow this may sound stupid, but can any crab apples be used to make things like crab apple jelly or are some varieties just ornamental?:question::question:

We have two crab apple trees in the front garden, they were here when we moved in, they crop well every year and I don't know if I can use the fruit or not...... I don't know the type of crab apple it is Can any of you lovely people out there help?

Thank you for reading :T

meritaten

If you know they are crab apples then why not make crab apple jelly?
If you are not sure - then take a pic and ask on the gardening thread what they are and if they are suitable for cooking, make jelly or wine with!

Farway

They are all edible, but not necessarily tasty. Most of course are very acidic. If they are crab apples then they should be in flower about now, pink /white blossom

I made wine with some large ones growing along the roadside, not sure I would faff around with smaller cherry sized ones

jue

Thank you for that, they are in flower now, pink and white blossom. The apples are small, cherry sized as you say Farway :-)

Seakay

Fruit from ornamental crab apple trees is edible; you would never eat crab apples raw anyway and the only practical difference is that sometimes the fruit from ornamentals is quite small.
However, it's great for jelly because you don't have to peel, core etc for that anyway.

booter

My crab apple tree gets scrumped by both me and my sis - they get washed, chopped, boiled/steamed (in a tiny drop of water), Add sugar to taste, then pass through a sieve to make a lovely pureed apple sauce! (Too much faff to make pies etc )

Money_maker

Crab apple jelly is the only jam/jelly that my 4 year old DD will eat. Particularly tasty on toast.

I have one tree which gives me plenty of fruit to use and an ornamental one which I don't use. The ornamental one has fruit not much bigger than a pea!

clare64

It looks as if we might have a bumper crop of crab apples this year, apart from making jelly and wine does anyone make anything different ? Can you freeze them?
Many thanks
Clare

floss2

What about herb jellies? Rosemary is lovely, or how about mint or sage?

Or chilli jelly would be good, and it would have a good set if you are using crab apples

kippers

Crab apple Ice cream sause is really lovely (it looks like the raspberry sauce the Ice cream man puts on your Mr Whippy, but tastes nicer).

The recipe is here (half way down the page):

http://notjustgreenfingers.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/crab-apple-ice-cream-sauce-and-fruit-tree-grease/

booter

I've used crab apples (plus sugar!) in a crumble and for apple sauce - cooked and sweetened to taste. Both tasted good to me