" Jeanne Stockdale" wrote in
:

Last year I made some wonderful crab apple jelly and am aiming to do
the same again this year.

Trouble is hubby and I cannot agree on whether or not the apples are
ready to pick. They are very red and I am convinced they are ready.
However hubby says that because they are difficult to pick (ie they
are not literally falling off the tree), they are not ready

So who is right - when are they ready to pick


Depends how tart you like your jelly. For cooking purposes, apples are
ready to cook as soon as they are big enough. If you like them sharp,
cook them early: if you like them sweet: later.

There are a lot of wasps about this year and the weather has been a bit
wild too: don't leave it too long or you will end up picking up windfalls.

I don't have a crabapple, but my early eater apples are mostly et now, and
the late eater apples are still a little tart, but nice.

The cooker still has a little way to go, but mostly only because it takes
less time to peel 4 fat apples than 6 skinny ones.

I had a party a week or so ago, and one of the participants brought with
them two bags of supermarket Braeburns from New Zealand! Honestly! No
doubt they'd been sitting in a cold store for months.

I think I shall have to compost them. They don't even make good crumble.

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
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