Crab-apple picking

Walking through Finsbury Park yesterday I noticed two beautiful crab apple trees, their leaves all shed but with the jewel like fruits still hanging in profusion. Below these small trees grey squirrels were frantically gathering the hard, crimson apples. They are perfect apples in every way but cherry sized, bullet hard and sour, you wouldn’t want to eat one no matter how seductive they look.

If you make a jelly of the fruit however, that is another matter. These pictures were taken last year, when Richard and I gathered three bowls full from his mothers tree. There were so many fruits that it took three people at least an hour to gather them in, and we still hadn’t got them all by the time we stopped. We are still eating the delicious, sweet clear amber jelly from last years crop, and this years crop will probably be gathered this weekend. The trees are native to the UK and so we can forage wild crab apples if we want, but not many people seem to know about these abundant fruits. Which is lucky for the wildlife that relies on the wild crabs bounty; when foraging in the wild I have a personal rule – whatever you are gathering NEVER take more than one third of the crop. To us it may be a delicious treat but to local fauna it is all the food they have.

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