Spiced Crab Apple Jelly

I'm very late in blogging this one. Been meaning to do it for several weeks. Already Autumn has passed and winter is upon us.

Nature brings a bountiful harvest. There is something special about harvesting bountiful wild crab apples and hedgerow berries. The vast majority of people pass them by without a second glance. To me, they are something special to be savoured. Easy to collect, and free to gather they impart beautiful flavours and are delicious made into jellies to serve on thickly buttered bread or toast and as a condiment alongside meats.

Add to a maslin pan :

2.5kg of crab apples

a thumb sized piece of root ginger

2 sticks of lemon grass

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 stick of cinnamon

Juice and zest of a lemon

Add approx 1 litre of water and boil until the fruit becomes soft and pulpy.

Strain off the liquid through some muslin. Actually, an clean pillowcase works well too. I can't resist squeezing out any excess juice, but by doing so this will make jellies a little cloudy. For this reason, I generally pass the juice a second time through a muslin cloth.

Put the juices back in the pan - with 750g of sugar for every litre of juice. Boil until setting point for jam is reached on a sugar thermometer and then pour into sterilised jars

Other variations of this can be made. I also made some hedgerow jelly (not spiced) with 1.5kg of mixed hedgerow berries such as sloes, hawthorne, rose hips and 1kg crab apples. Delicious on warm buttered scones.

Apologies - I didn't get round to taking photos of the hedgerow jelly. Shame, as it was a beautiful pink hue.