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A friend gave me a bunch of crab apples from her tree, I was so excited because I love making jam, but when you have to buy your fruit the cost ends up being prohibitive. She gave me a quick explanation on how to make it since I’d only done jam before, not jelly. She explained how to do my juice and then to follow the instructions on the pectin box for the rest. I kind of spaced and didn’t remember if she said to cut the apples up or not. The first pot full I didn’t cut up, or cut off the blossom ends. I think it turned out fine, and I’ll most likely just do it the lazy way (remove stems and wash) when I do it again.
I did use sugar, wasn’t together enough to figure out how to use honey. I just followed the directions on the low sugar pectin. I’m excited to have a bunch of jelly for this year. Buying jam/jelly without corn syrup (corn syrup is genetically modified) in it can get expensive.
Washing. Aren’t they pretty?
Removing the blossom ends now, since I stopped by the computer to clarify what I really should be doing.
The star inside
The pot of cooking whole crabapples. I did 3 different pots since there were a bunch.
Smashing them with the spoon. I love this spoon. Next I got the juice out in the same way I got the whey out back in this making yogurt cheese/whey post.
Stirring the jam.
This spoon again. It’s good for scraping the bottom of the pot when you need the bottom to not stick.
Pretty good! I did the juice one day, and the jam the next morning since I have little ones. They made 2 batches + another bit of juice that I attempted to turn into syrup (have you seen the fruit syrups? Like boysenberry and stuff?) but it turned into really thick jam! Oh well, we just used that up first.
This is very similar to mayhaw jelly that is usually only found in the deep south. I live in Atlanta, and I had only just recently heard of it myself. The mayhaw is in the apple family and is basically like a crabapple the size of a cranberry or even smaller. It makes very tasty jelly! It reminds me of apple jelly but much better. It is known as “the best jelly in the world” among the folks that produce it. Since the mayhaw is so small, the blossom ends are left intact when made into juice for the jelly; otherwise, it would be too tedious. I just love the beautiful reddish color of the finished jelly! I’m sure that your crabapple jelly is just as delicious! It looks wonderful!