Crab apples

I can remember that when I was younger my mum (or grandma, can't remember which!) used to make crab apple jelly, which we ate on thinly sliced white bread and butter. When I started up jillicious! earlier on this year, my sister mentioned that she remembered eating crab apple jelly when she was younger, and how tasty it was. I promised her that I'd try to get my hands on some crab apples and see what I could do...

So when we were chatting to our newly-introduced neighbours Anthony and Sue during the summer, and they told us that a gorgeous tree in their back garden was a crab apple tree, my eyes lit up! The tree was covered in rosy red and orange fruit.... and I mean covered! So a trip round to Anthony and Sue's later and I was the proud owner of 2 massive bags of crab apples! (Thank you Anthony and Sue!)


With Anthony and Sue's crab apples I made a few jars of spiced crab apple jelly, and a few jars of bramble and crab apple jelly. The former is cooked with cloves and cinnamon and as crab apples make a rose-coloured jelly, it is both spiced and pretty! The bramble and crab apple jelly takes on the colour of the brambles, so is a dark purple colour, and has a lovely flavour...bramble jelly with a bit of a bite!

Our friends Laura and Tom brought us a big galvanised pail full of crab apples from their garden a couple of months later, and with their crab apples I made crab apple and quince jelly and spiced crab apple and plum jelly. The crab apple and quince has a lovely flavour, slightly perfumed from the quince. The flavour of the spiced plum and crab apple jelly reminds me a bit of Christmas and mulled wine (yum!) and I reckon the gorgeous colour of the jelly is just the kind of uplifting sight you need at breakfast time this time of year!

See what I mean?!

I would eat these jellies on toast or bread and butter, as a sweet preserve but I think that they would probably go just as well with cheese and biscuits too. Why don't you try them and decide for yourself?

Autumn colours

I've come to the conclusion over the past few months that I'm a bit of a tree hugger (which is no bad thing!). There is something to be said for the feeling of happiness that I get when I see a beautiful flower, a sun dappled English hedgerow or a fruit laden-tree. We went to Batsford Arboretum in Gloucestershire a couple of weekends ago, and the autumn colours of the trees there were just breathtaking...... I read a couple of weeks ago that it's the British weather conditions that dictate the strength of the autumn colours. Bright, sunny autumn days and cold, but not freezing, nights with low levels of rainfall are what's needed for a vibrant display of reds, oranges and yellows.

The BBC website explains how the weather we've had this year has also led to a huge crop of hedgerow fruits like brambles, wild plums, rosehips and sloes. The weather this year has been that of extremes; the coldest winter in 30 years, the first late spring since 1976, a heatwave in late June and the coldest August in 17 years. Despite this though, because the 10-12 week period between May and early July was relatively frost free, the trees all had time to flower, be pollinated and set well with fruit.

Happy days! Let's hope next year will have equally as gorgeous tree colours and another bumper wild fruit harvest!