Crabapples

[Erik W]

I have a crabapple tree with quite a bit of fruit on it.  Until this year, I never even thought to try them, since they are fairly small and a bit deformed, etc.  With my new interest in wild foods, though, I decided this was foolish and tried one yesterday.  It tasted pretty good, although a little sour (which may be simply because it wasn't 100% ripe.)  This got me excited.

So here's the dumb questions: is there any reason not to use crabapples?  Can you use them just like regular apples?  I have visions of crabapple sauce, cider, crabapple pies, etc... (It's a BIG tree!)

[Mark Norton]

Crab apple jelly is a classic. Another use for crab apples is as source of pectin. Some people make their own pectin from batches of cooked crabs.

[Erik W]

Thanks for the reply. It looks like crab-apple pie might be a winner too.