From the category archives:

Apples

Three reasons to grow crab apples

by Alyse on Sunday, October 3, 2010

I don’t currently have a crab apple tree because my dad keeps me well supplied from his tree, but I hope to always be able to look forward to the time of year when I have more crab apples than I know what to do with.

 A crab apple to me tastes like the flavor of 10 apples packed into one, so any recipe you are lucky enough to make with them is guaranteed to have intense flavor. These aren’t the first crab apples I’ve gotten my hands on this season but they are the best. Dolgo is the variety and I highly recommend it for our zone – excellent for cooking as well as eating fresh.

My first use for these was a batch of Apples in Vodka.

Pack whole washed apples into jars then fill the jars with 1/4 sugar and 3/4 vodka. I added a cinnamon stick to each one. Close the lids tightly and keep in a cool dark place for 3 months, occasionally turning the jars upside down to stir things up. The vodka preserves the apples so efficiently that there is no risk of spoilage or botulism and no need for heating or processing.  I’ve never made this before, but after 3 months I should expect to have a rich apple cinnamon liqueur and sweet vodka-soaked cinnamon apples – just in time for the holidays. Hmmm, Christmas gifts perhaps?

My only reservation is that this method is generally used for soft skinned fruits like cherries and plums so I wasn’t sure how easily vodka would permeate the tough skins of the apples but after one week, it looks like its working just fine.

My next use for the harvest is a repeat, but one of the prettier batches of apple jelly I’ve ever made. In fact, I might save some jars of this to enter in the fair next year.

 The clarity of this jelly comes from the juicing method. I ran the apples through a fresh juicer.

I kept the juice in a pitcher in the fridge over night to make jelly the next day when I had more time. Over night the pulp in the juice settled to the bottom leaving a perfectly clear juice for the jelly.

I only needed 5 cups of juice for the recipe on the pectin package so the left over juice was made into my 3rd use - hot spiced cider to warm up a cold gray day.

Hot Crab Apple Cider

Add equal portions of apple juice and water to a pot on the stove and simmer for at least 20 minutes with a cinnamon stick, whole cloves and sugar to taste. The juice is too rich without the water and some will evaporate while cooking. This was the pulpy portion of the juice which doesn’t make the prettiest cider, but I was able to skim most of the pulp off the top as it cooked. You can keep this warm on the stove to enjoy all day and it makes your whole house smell wonderful.

I enjoyed mine paired with crab apple jelly on toast.

 Fall is the best time to plant a new crab apple tree. Anytime from September to December is fine, with the ideal time (in Seattle) being the first half of November. Dolgo trees are available on dwarf root stalk growing to 10 feet and are resistant to scab and mildew so they’re great for a Seattle back yard.

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Apple Rose Jelly

by Alyse on Wednesday, September 1, 2010

I recently had the opportunity to attend a canning class in West Seattle taught by Amy Pennington, author of The Urban Pantry and contributor for Edible Seattle and I came home with new inspiration and lots fresh ideas like this one: apple and rose hip jelly infused with rose.

Crab apples aren’t always easy to find but I’ve scouted out an abandoned tree in my neighborhood and I’m making very good use of them.

And where do you find rose hips in Seattle? Go for a walk – you’re bound to come across some. I find wild roses growing everywhere in this city. I don’t really know if one part of the city is any less polluted than another but in my mind it just makes sense that the rose hips in the park are less exposed to pollutants and somehow cleaner than the rose hips next to the freeway. A hike in the woods outside of the city is my ideal picking.

The dried rose petals came from an herb shop up the street.

I steeped the rose petals in a cup of hot water to make a very strong tea. I halved the apples to check for worms (only found a few) and hulled about two cups of rose hips (this was not the fun part). I ran the apples and rose hips through a juicer to make 5 cups of juice then combined that with the rose tea and followed the instructions for apple jelly on my store bought pectin package.

I’ve yet to make jam without store bought pectin. I’m reading about using natural pectin from apples and I aspire to find success with this one day but for this project, which took a lot of work, I didn’t want to mess it up by experimenting. I did, however, forget to strain the jelly to make it clear so it’s not exactly perfect but the flavor is nothing short of complex and luxurious - perhaps my best work yet.

Nothing here came from my garden but the point is that it could and I’m trying to stay on point with this blog.

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