WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU CRABAPPLES

A beautiful, fast-growing, flowering tree, the crab apple also gives you a bounty of crab apples come summer. The fruit is about quarter-sized with a crispy clean tartness, but it is definitely appley. So what do you do with a tree full of crab apples? Well, for starters, jelly.

Gather the fruit; I had about 2 1/2 gallons.

Crab apples are hard and you can't just slice them. So, how to chop? I dug out these two old kitchen tools. Notice the acorns carved on the handle on the left. The tool on the right is older, like maybe colonial days old with its kidney bean shape. Each tool has been shaped and hammered or forged. The tool on the left worked better for this job.

Well, here is the result of all that chopping, now ready to cook down to a sauce. You will have to drain the mash in a cheesecloth to get the juice, but any jam or jelly making book will instruct you how to make the jelly.

Voila! It only took several hours . . . but here is the result. I need to make some scones now to try it.

But, if that wasn't enough and you like the occasional drinky winky, I chopped some more and am making crab apple liqueur. These recipes are all over the web. The one on the left is straight vodka and the one on the right has vodka and a little brandy in it. It is fun to play around with the flavors. When I look out to the tree that is still loaded, I am thinking juice for drink concoctions or pickled crab apples, but I don't think any in my family will eat them. Oh well, it's on to the white peaches.

CANNING 101

Well, it's that time again; all your hard work has paid off and it's time to gather up all the season's produce for next winter. I have posted about my canning before so you can type in pickles and get the recipe for my dills. Yes, these are the same dills that were chosen to appear in Smith and Hawken's Community Gardener's Cookbook. Okay, so big deal. But, may I say these are the best dill pickles you will ever eat. Guaranteed!

Found one I missed this evening. It is very easy to do. I always overplant which makes them harder to find. This one was about 5 inches long which is a perfect size for pickling.

I filled my basket up with pickling cucumbers last evening (and a couple of fairy eggplants). Don't use salad type cucumbers as they won't turn out the same.

The alum makes them extra crunchy, but a fresh grape leaf will do the trick too. Always use fresh - garlic, dill and the cukes. It looks so much prettier in the jar. It is okay to use dried peppers.

Here is the finished product. It'll be ready in about a month - it takes that long for the flavors to meld. Crunchy, sour and salty with a tiny bite from the pepper. These are stored in the refrigerator and will be just as good a year from now as they will be in a month. None better!

These dill pickles are easy to make. I have sold them at shows, flea markets, and just by word of mouth. I have had many past customers call and ask for them and finally have quite a following. I would like to start a business selling these and other pickles as well as jellies and jams. I have had many say they would love to market them for me, but I fear taking on too much debt. I researched one guy who sold pickles through supermarkets. He didn't even have to grow the pickles, nor can them. A factory did that for him. So I guess all he did was to market them to grocers. I would like to do that too. Farmer's Markets are good, but to really sell the product you would have to be in many markets. I just don't know where to start. I don't have a business head, and I'm not sure I want one.