We had a bit of a surprise this spring. The tree at the end of our driveway turned into this
As the seasons progressed it turned into this,
With branches that look like this
And this is after weeks and weeks of harvesting. A few days ago the children decided to shake the tree to see what would happen. Over a bushel fell but the tree is still adundant. I am so thankful that we got to see this tree through the seasons and that my less then two year old knows that fruit comes from trees. Every time we go to the mailbox we have to stop for a treat.
The tree is so abudant in fact I decided to try my hand at jelly. I cut the stem and blossom ends of the apples and put about 12 cups of them with 3 cups of water in a pot to simmer down. I bought a jelly bag (basically a super fine strainer) to get the juice. The directions fo the Ball Blue Book of preserving said
Crab Apple Jelly
4 cups crab apple juice
4 cups sugar
Disolve sugar in juice, bring to a boil, then simmer stirring constantly until it gets to the jelling point. It took about 15-20 minutes for me but I think I did it too long because my jelly is super firm.
I got 4 1/2 one half pint containers. Should have been about 6 according to the recipe, another reason I think I let it go too long. I got the labels from Taproot Magazine. I should have taken the picture with light behind it so you could see the pretty pink color. Pretty is always good.