Foraging - can anyone tell me what these are?

Thistle-down

They aren't ripe, or at least they didn't come off the bushes easily.



I just touched my tongue to them and they were pretty sour.

LameWolf

They might be domestic apple trees that have been neglected for a very long time - if that's the case, you can use the fruit just the same way as crabbies, to make jelly. That'd explain the two varieties/colours growing in close proximity.

Lynplatinum

Hiya

I think they look like crab apples - and they will be very sour! Even when ripe. Although related to eating apples they are a much older form of apple and were recorded as being around in Tudor times when they made a kinda jam with them using honey as sugar wasnt around then but most got made into mead (a kind of liqueur made with honey! YUMMMM) :beer:

I would think they would need about another month before picking. You know if an apple is ready to pick when, if you twist it gently the twig bit comes away from the branch.

The jelly I make just as Mrs Lurcherwalker describes - its really yummy, and I would use exactly as she describes also!! Well found forager!
Very OS money saving!
Cheers
LynPlatinum

Farway

Thistle-down wrote: »

They aren't ripe, or at least they didn't come off the bushes easily.



I just touched my tongue to them and they were pretty sour.

Another clue on ripeness, pips shold be brown or black. Your's are still white from what I can see

Shropshirelass

I second Mrs LW's recipe for jelly, but you can add blackberries to make a super bramble jelly. I pick blackberries as and when I find them, freeze them and then when I have a fair amount (say a mixing bowl full) add crab apples and make jelly. It gets rid of the blackberry seeds, and the crab apples being sour let the jelly set - full of pectin I guess.

loocyloo

my SIL makes crab apple jelly and then adds chopped chillis to it to have with cold meats etc.

Thistle-down

Thank you all again! I will wait another month and the try out the recipe for jelly :j

thriftwizard

Definitely crab apples! And I too know several places where there's more than one crab apple tree; one is a spot where people from the nearby factory (now gone & covered in expensive waterside des. res.es) ate their lunches & dropped their apple cores! Two of the little trees have stunning double blossoms and very tasty little fruits - when cooked! Another is undoubtedly an offspring of a Golden Delicious - the fruits look exactly like GDs & smell exactly like them but are about 1/10th the size. Excellent in jellies & chutneys.

I have a Golden Hornet and a Japanese crab apple tree, as well as 4 "proper" apples, a Blenheim Orange, a Worcester Pearmain, an Egremont Russet and an Ashmead's Kernel. Two Vranja quinces too... we'll never win any scenic garden awards, but I do love my fruit...