Winter Delights, Crab Apples In The Snow

Winter is a time to process and store, crack and roast, leech and grind.  A time to take all your bounty from the fall and turn it into food and pantry items for next year.  But there are still things to find even in the most frozen parts of the year.

In the fall this little decorative crab apple had rock hard fruits that were so sour they would cause your mouth to invert, but after a few frosts the fruits have softened and are now only slightly tart with a lovely hint of sweetness (this is often called bletting) .  I took a handful home and made a little pan jelly with them.

Recipe:
Sort out the dried ones, add to a pan and add water to just barely cover the fruit.
Cook until soft then mash up the fruit, strain the solid bits out and pour the liquid into a measuring cup.  Measure out the same amount of sugar as liquid and return both to the pan, heat until thick.  Crab apples are full of pectin so you wont need to add any.

I only made about a 1/4 cup of this just to test its flavor and it was really good.  I already have a bunch of crab apple jelly in the pantry, but this tree has a really nice tart flavor so when I run out I might make it from this tree next time.  I will probably grab some more to make apple cider vinegar though.  In the mean time I left all these lovely slightly sweet fruits for others, including the birds who will feast on them in February when other food is scarce.