What to Do with Crab Apples

I was introduced to crabapples when my children were young and I was living in the suburbs. I was homesteading, but didn't have room for fruit trees, so I scoured our town for food-bearing trees on public land. (There were quite a few...and it seemed I was the only one bothering to harvest from them!)

One of the trees closest to our house had small green tart apples - crabapples! I had no idea what to do with them, although my children didn't mind eating them raw.

What I learned was that crabapples can be used exactly like any other apple. For very tart crabapples, you may need to add more sugar to your recipe...but you might be surprised that often you won't need to.

By the way, the definition of a crabapple is just an apple that is 2 inches or less in diameter when fully ripe. Crabapples can be red or green, teeny tiny (each apple not even giving you one bite of food), they can be extremely sour or just a little tart. Contrary to what some think, there isn't a crabapple that is toxic or poisonous - though you might get an upset stomach from eating too many very sour crabapples.

In addition, crabapples are very high in pectin. This makes them excellent medicine, as well as the best source for natural pectin for jam and jelly making!

So while you can use crabapples in your favorite apple recipes, here are a few that are designed specifically for crabapples. Don't let them limit you, though. Get creative!

Cooking with Crabapples
* Grilled ham with crabapple glaze
* Crabapple marmalade (not for canning)
* Crabapple relish (not for canning)
* Crabapples poached in wine
* Apple vinegar

Baking with Crabapples
* Crabapple pie
* Crabapple kugel
* Crabapple bread