Anyone do anything with crabapples?

[fidgiegirl]

My parents have a crabapple tree that grows pretty large crabapples. It has never occurred to me to use these for anything since they are not good just on their own, but that tree is loaded, so I started poking around online and there are some fun ideas for butters, chutneys, jellies, preserves, etc.

Anyone use crabapples?

[razz]

My MIL used to make really good sweet pickled crab apples used as a relish. I used to make jelly but since few eat sweets anymore, I stopped quite a while ago.

[Simpler at Fifty]

We always canned crabapples. They were sweet and were on the relish tray at all family get togethers. I have not had any for years now.

[Rosemary]

My mom used to make crabapple jelly.
We have a lot of crabapple trees, but the fruit is quite small. We leave it for the birds to eat in the winter.

[Jilly]

Sweet and spicy canned. Even doing that is more of a pain than just about any other canning. They are wonderful, though. In that other life my neighbor had a tree that produced more crabapples than I have ever seen. The tree branches were bowed from the fruit and the birds eating them.

They still provided food in the winter. All dried out the birds and other critters would eat them all season long.

[puglogic]

I made beer with them one year. Pretty good stuff. I always wondered what crabapplesauce would be like....I like really tart things.