For many years I have made applesauce with larger pie-type apples and it is always good. But this year apples were in very short supply due to bad weather this spring. A good friend from my church told me that there were some apples on his tree and that they were 'good for jelly and apple butter'. But, he said, they are crab apples. Tiny little things. About an inch to 2 inches max. He said his mother and sister always made good jelly from them. So I went and picked 3 big pails full of them. I did make an excellent jelly from them, but I had way more than I needed for jelly (what was I thinking picking 3 big pails full?)
So I decided to try making applesauce from them. They were tart, but a little on the mealy side, and I know from experience that mealy apples make really good sauce. I even looked up on Google to see if anyone else makes crab apple sauce. They do. And so I did also. Yes, it was very time consuming putzy work, but...........
Wow! It is the best ever! I like it so much better than regular apples for sauce! It has some body to it, a really fruity taste, a lovely pink color, and has a great sweet/tart flavor that makes the applesauce a real gourmet treat. I had to use some sugar to sweeten the sauce (about an 1/8 to 1/4 cup per pint), but that's not bad. I am so glad I decided to try crab apple sauce. Sometimes the Lord puts wonderful surprises in small, seemingly insignificant, things. What a great blessing to have such a tasty applesauce for my winter pantry from those tiny apples that most folks just let drop on the ground. The way I see it, God provided those apples for us, and it's up to us to figure out a way to use them. So if you like to make applesauce, don't pass up those little crab apple varieties - you might be just as pleasantly surprised as I was! And you know what? I'm going to see if there's more apples on that tree - I'll make another batch of that sauce because I know when it's 30 below zero this winter and I'm buried in snow, a jar of that summery goodness is going to taste really good!
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| A sink full of those tiny crab apples ready to be washed. |
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| All those little bitzy things had to be quartered and stems and blossom ends removed, and seeds, too. (At least I didn't have to peel them!) |
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| The lovely, tasty finished product! |
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From those 3 pails of apples, I ended up with 13 small jars of jelly, and 11 pints of sauce.
2 comments:
My mouth is watering and I just finished breakfast! :-)
I love crab apple sauce! We were able to get some from Hilda a few years ago and it was sooo delicious! The color is absolutely gorgeous!
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