FORAGING CRAB APPLES + What To Do With Them | Vegan Cooking | Plant Based Jam | HCLF
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Lots of people know the trees that lose their leaves in autumn and keep their tiny red fruits throughout winter but aren't aware that the latter are edible. After figuring the tiny crab apples are sour but can be used as food, I decided to go foraging and then experimented with my first crab apple harvest in my kitchen.
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______________________WHAT TO DO WITH CRAB APPLES______________________
I didn't follow any recipes but did some freestyle cooking. Here's the details:
1. As I'm not a big jelly fan, I made an easy jam. The time consuming preparation included removing the seeds, bad spots and blossoms of the crab apples. Once I was done, I filled them into a pot, covered the fruits with water and cooked them into a mushy pulp. For sweetening, I added raw cane sugar until it was sweet enough for my personal taste. I didn't puree the pulp because I wanted a chunky jam. Due to the high pectin content of the apples, the pulp was already pretty firm, so I only added about 0.5 teaspoon of agar agar, activated in a little lemon juice.
2. I made a cloudy apple juice. This time I only removed bad spots and blossoms, but didn't cut the apples. I filled them into a pot and roughly estimated the amount of water needed to cover the fruits. I filled the water into my high speed blender and added raisins (dates would work great, too, I think). I blended the water raisin mix, adding more raisins until it was sweet enough for my personal taste. Then poured the liquid into the pot and cooked everything into a mushy pulp. The latter went into a strainer that was sitting on a big bowl and was lined with a fine laundry mesh (nut milk bag or cheese cloth would work, too). I let the juice drip into the bowl for about 2 hours, then closed the laundry bag and pressed and squeezed out all the remaining liquid.
The method described leads to a cloudy juice, exactly what I wanted. If you prefer clear juice, use a jelly straining bag like this one:
More things you can do with crab apples:
● Make a jelly (make sure to use organic sugar for a vegan jelly):
● Pickle them (make sure to use vegan vinegar and sugar):
● Make syrup, fruit leater or apple butter (for the leather, to make sure to use maple syrup for a vegan version, and use organic sugar for the other recipes):
My raspberry jam recipe mentioned in the video:
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This video is my intellectual property and is NOT published under the Creative Commons license. Unless you have written permission by Bianca's Kitchen, you DON'T have the right to use this video or parts of it on YouTube or any other website or app.
Music: „Hit My Soul“ by Silent Partner
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about this video:
food, wild apples, forage, foraging, crabapples, zierapfel, self sufficiency, crab apples, forager, vegan, vegans, plant based, plantstrong, forager, vegano, vegetalien, veganer, vegetarian, apple jam, apple jelly, homemade food, nutrition, vegan food,
How to Make Homemade Crabapple Jelly
Crabapple jelly is fun and easy to make! It takes a little longer than jam as you have to strain it first, but it's definitely worth the extra effort.
Equipment you may need:
Jars (4oz) -
Muslin/Cheese Cloth -
Jelly bag -
Waterbath Canner Starter Set -
Ladle -
Potato Masher -
I used 5.5 lbs of crabapples, which made 10 x 125ml (1/4 pint) jars.
- place trimmed crabapples in a large saucepan and add 1 cup of water for every pound of crabapples.
- bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- boil for 15 min and then crush crabapples with a potato masher and boil for a further 5 min.
- strain the crabapples through a jelly bag or cheese cloth into a container for at least 2 hrs or overnight.
- place a small plate in the freezer for checking set point later.
- place juice in a saucepan and add 2/3 cup sugar for every cup of juice.
- bring juice and sugar gently to a boil while stirring constantly. Continue to boil for 15-18 min while stirring.
- after 15 min, remove the plate from the freezer and add a small amount of jelly onto the plate and return to the freezer for 1 min.
- remove plate again and run finger through the jelly. If the jelly wrinkles, it's ready. If not, continue to boil jelly for another couple of minutes and test again.
- remove jelly from heat and skim any foam/scum off the top.
To preserve:
Smaller pan for lids
Large pan/stockpot for canning – I use a 21 qt. canner that has a jar rack as well.
Mason jars
Funnel
Jar-lifting tongs
- wash jars and lids with hot and soapy water and rinse well.
- to sterilize jars, place jars in canner with just simmering water. Leave the jars in there until ready to use.
- warm lids (do not boil) in smaller pan.
- pour hot jelly into jars.
- make sure there's no jelly on the rim of the jars that could affect the seal. Clean with a damp cloth.
- place lids on top of jars and screw on bands until finger tight.
- place jars in canner and lower into water. Make sure there's at least 2 inches of water over the top of the jars. Bring water to a boil and process jars for 10 min. Use the following chart to adjust water canning times for different altitudes:
Altitude (feet) Increase processing time
1001 - 3000 5 minutes
3001 - 6000 10 minutes
6001 - 8000 15 minutes
8001 - 10000 20 minutes
- remove jars from water and place on a towel for at least 12 hrs. During this time you'll hear each of the lids pop as they seal.
- check the jars have sealed properly – they shouldn't move up and down when you press in the middle of the lid. If a jar hasn't sealed, you can refrigerate it and eat it or you can process the jar again using a new lid.
- keep processed jars in a cool, dry and dark place. They will last for about 1 year. Enjoy!
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