71) The joy of crab apples

Today, the crab apple tree in our garden was severely pruned.

This tree has, forever, looked like a leggy sapling.  It's only when you get close to it that you realise that 90% of the fruit it bears is waaaayyy out of reach.

This tree crops fairly heavily every year, but because the fruit is unpickable, it drops onto the flower beds and the lawn, bruises, rots and gets eaten by dogs, who end up with a bad stomach.  So, we've decided to cut it down to a third of its original height - at precisely the time it is full of fruit.  Which we can now pick off the cut branches - yayy!!!

This is six pounds of crab apples, washed and draining.  They're now in the freezer, where they are waiting their opportunity to turn into wine just as soon as the elderberries are out of the primary fermentation bucket.

Another three pounds have been stewed to mush, which will be strained and turned into jelly some time in the next week or so.  I think a third of them will become plain crabapple jelly, a third will become elderberry-crabapple, and the rest will become chili-crabapple.  Hopefully.

I love having a garden.

Comments

[Tempewytch]

Sounds like a bumper crop! Have fun with all of that :-) How are you sorted for Chillis by the way? Do you want some home grown ones?

[KathleenC]

You're fermenting elderberries! Then I have a question for you regarding elderberries and, uhm, strong spirits...
The husband has some white lightning gifted him a while ago that tastes... not too good. Waaaaay too strong. So his thought was to flavor it by steeping it with elderberries (which we bought at the Farmer's Market). Do you have a suggestion for whether we should leave them whole or crush them? How long do they need to steep to release flavor? Do they need sweetening or are they sweet enough on their own?
Thanks for any advice you can offer!

[Alison]

okayy... I have a few ideas, depending on what kind of not-good the white lightning tastes. Elderberries have a tart, astringent taste; somewhat like a cross between blackcurrants and cranberries. At least, the wild ones do; I suppose it's possible there are some sweeter, more cultivated varieties around. Taste one of two and find out!

If the white lightning is too dry or sour, you could either make a syrup from the elderberries by boiling them with water and sugar and mix that with the WL; that would sweeten and flavour it, a bit like cider and blackcurrant. Or you could steep them with sugar in the WL, a bit like making sloe gin (though because WL has a lower alcohol content than gin, I think you should clean the berries by washing them in sodium metabisulphite, availalbe from homebrew shops, first. To steep them, I think I would crush them lightly. Enough to split the skins, but not to mush them totally; a potato masher is good for crushing elderberries. Or, if you've frozen them, they will be split already. You'll probably have to strain before drinking, though, because of seeds and skin and mush.

If the WL is too sweet, you could try steeping the elderberries without any added sugar, or if you're interested in homebrewing, perhaps use it as a starter base to re-ferment with the elderberries. i've no idea if that's a viable idea, but it's the sort of thing I'd be interested in trying.

Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, WL is not really cider at all, but fermented corn syrup. Interesting...