Help! Apple glut

Herbie

Herbie

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Staffordshire, England
Hi

My apple tree has gone mad this year and produced even more apples than usual and I have buckets of windfalls even after giving a lot away. So today I am making Christmas presents :D Honey apple mustard (both mild and strong) and spiced apple chutney.

What else can I make that can be stored? I've filled a draw in the freezer for making crumbles etc.

I'll do a batch of Pakistani apple pickle but it's not something a lot of people like.
 
If I send you my address, you can mail me some Pakistani apples pickle - sounds heavenly

Last year a neighbour got together with some other women, bought a tonne of apples from a farmer for 50euros, rented a cuve and between them made 600litres of organic apple juice.

If the process is of interest to you @Herbie, let me know and I'll tell you more
 
Wandering Bob said:
If I send you my address, you can mail me some Pakistani apples pickle - sounds heavenly

Last year a neighbour got together with some other women, bought a tonne of apples from a farmer for 50euros, rented a cuve and between them made 600litres of organic apple juice.

If the process is of interest to you @Herbie, let me know and I'll tell you more
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It's a great idea. There is an apple festival in a nearby town where you can do just that, but unfortunately due to the hot weather (I assume) my apples are ripening early so I doubt I'll have any left by September.

I doubt it would get through customs :(. Here is the recipe though:

Apple pickle: https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/hot-apple-pickle.10483/ I used rather sour cooking apples so would be quite different is eating apples were used.

I'm trying to find the recipes I used last year. Here is apple and green tomato chutney (I forgot I made this) https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/curried-green-tomato-and-apple-chutney.10900/ and from this thread I see the apple and coconut relish @morning glory challenged me to make. I have some coconut so will make some of this for our next curry night.
It doesn't look like I posted the other recipes on here so I;'ll have to search through my box of recipe printouts (my rather disorganised system of printing or photocopying recipes so I can scribble my thoughts and changes on them.
 
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I share your pain @Herbie - I have four apple trees bearing bumper crops, two are crabs, one eater and one cooking. My wife makes a lovely crab apple jelly, infused with a hint of chilli that goes really well with roast pork or chicken. I would be very interested in the hot mustard and the Pakistani pickle recipes!
 
epicuric said:
I share your pain @Herbie - I have four apple trees bearing bumper crops, two are crabs, one eater and one cooking. My wife makes a lovely crab apple jelly, infused with a hint of chilli that goes really well with roast pork or chicken. I would be very interested in the hot mustard and the Pakistani pickle recipes!
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How high are your garden walls?

It doesn't really matter because my legs now have trouble mounting kerbs.

I used to really enjoy scrumping as a kid and could eat crab apples until they came out of my ears. Maybe I still could?
 
Herbie said:
due to the hot weather (I assume) my apples are ripening early so I doubt I'll have any left by September.
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I thought it was early (if not very early) for your apples to have ripened - we've only just said goodbye to July - perhaps (as you say) it's both the heat and the exceptional dryness this year.

Thanks for the links to the recipes - I read both and started to get very hungry ….

You mentioned sour cooking apples - yet another thing that I can't get in France is a good Bramley (they simply don't exist). Perhaps I should those to the (very few) things that I miss from the UK …
 
epicuric said:
I share your pain @Herbie - I have four apple trees bearing bumper crops, two are crabs, one eater and one cooking. My wife makes a lovely crab apple jelly, infused with a hint of chilli that goes really well with roast pork or chicken. I would be very interested in the hot mustard and the Pakistani pickle recipes!
Click to expand...
Cross posts! Apple pickle recipe above. I've just found the mustard recipe so will post that.
 
Yorky said:
How high are your garden walls?

It doesn't really matter because my legs now have trouble mounting kerbs.

I used to really enjoy scrumping as a kid and could eat crab apples until they came out of my ears. Maybe I still could?
Click to expand...

No jumping required, just knock on my door and I hand you a bag or two :)

We used to go scrumping as kids, though I now know we weren't actually scrumping...

Adjoining the side of our garden was the end of a large garden of a Victorian house . The end of the garden, as was popular in Victorian times, was an orchard. There was a lovely old chap living there that my sister and I called Mr McGregor (I think this added to the excitement that we were 'scrumping'!). Unknown to me and sister he had asked mum to pick and use what she could, and she made loads of chutney, pies, crumbles, bramble jelly** (I loved that stuff - must make it!) etc. and gave some to Mr McGregor. Shortly before we moved the old chap died and several houses were built in his garden and the apple trees ripped out. Very sad.

**Our garden 'hedge' was blackberry bushes so we had ample supply of fruit.
 
Herbie said:
bramble jelly** (I loved that stuff - must make it!)
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I wish you luck. This is the second year running when our bramble/blackberry crop looks like being a complete failure. I think it must be the lack of rain again.
 
Karen W said:
Apple Roses

https://cookingwithmanuela.blogspot.com/2016/09/how-to-make-gorgeous-rose-shaped-apple.html
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Oh so pretty!

apple roses 7.jpg
 
Herbie said:
What else can I make that can be stored? I've filled a draw in the freezer for making crumbles etc
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Black Butter - a speciality of Jersey. Recipe here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/about_jersey/food/recipes/black_butter.shtml

But just look at these ingredients - it sounds delicious. I'm sure you don't have to use 700 pounds of apples - but you did say you had a glut!

Ingredients
10 gallons cider
700 lb sweet apples, peeled and cut
20 lb sugar
3 sticks liquorice, finely chopped
24 lemons, sliced
3 lb allspice
 
In October 2016 we made some apple wine - which I have to admit wasn't great when we first made it. But now its had the best part of 2 years to mature it starting to get a lovely Calvados-y kind of flavour - its absolutely delicious :okay:
This is the recipe we used...at the time we thought there was too much sugar in it because initially the wine was too sweet, but as we couldn't get the fermentation going again (even with champagne yeast) we bottled it anyway. Considering how it turned out in the end I think I'd probably stick to the recipe again and just make sure we age it well before drinking.
 
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