EPISODE 882 CRAB APPLE JELLY…FROM WILD CRAB APPLE TREE…guarded by three mowers with hidden knife like blades
alan skeoch
sept. 20, 2023
Our wild crab apple tree has had no care in its 50 or so year life. Nondescript is a word that
suits the tree. It grew on the old barn hill about the time the barn fell down. A apple kind of
phoenix…something good from something lost.
Today I drove our ATV under the sprawling apple loaded branches and in 15 minutes filled
a pail with bright red crab apples.
“I want the reddest crab apples, Alan, they will give
the colour to our apple jelly.”
And that was the end of my labour. The rest was done by Marjorie who managed to get
five small jars of crab apple jelly from half a pail of apples….
“Take off the stems, leaves and watch for worm holes.”
“There are no worms, Marjorie….every crab apple is perfect.”
“Did you pick them all?”
“No…I got half a pail of apples from one single branch. The tree
is loaded.. Do you want me to pick more? “
“No more….the real work is converting the apples into jelly, that will
take hours.”
“I did my part…15 minutes.”
“And my part will take a good part of the day.”
“How much jelly did you get?”
“Six small jars…bright red crab apple jelly.”
“Do not give any away, we can spend part of the winter eating the jelly with toast and butter.”
“You are so self centred.”
“They are my apples.”
“What have you done to help the tree”
“I parked three old horse drawn mowing machines under the tree….great long rusted
mower blades will dissuade any thieves…the cutters are hidden in the golden rod
that ring around the tree. “
alan
Find your own recipe for crab apple jelly….then look for a willd crab apple tree.
Marjorie says if you want a recipe, let us know and we will do an episode with the recipe included.
….next episode will feature our wild apple trees…the few that have survived. They have no
names…feel free to suggest names starting with our crab apple tree.
END