The concept of seasonal fruit has changed, with most supermarkets today able to supply consumers with most types of fruit all year round. One place the seasons can still be seen in practice is in the garden – autumn heralds the arrival of apples and pears.
Staring at the huge bags full of apples and pears straight from the tree the first thing that leapt into my mind was apple jelly. I remember as a child my neighbour making jar after jar of apple jelly – the beautiful blushed red, transparent jelly looked so magical to me as a little girl. Sadly there isn’t an apple jelly recipe in the Edmonds anymore however there is a recipe for Mint and Apple jelly; close enough. It just means that instead of a topping for scones we have an accompaniment for lamb.
The recipe is on page 235. The recipe is really easy to follow but Jelly needs to be strained through a jelly bag or fine cloth overnight, so you need to plan a little in advance. The finished product is really lovely. It made a little more than the two 250 ml jars it promised, but if you find yourself short on jars you can freeze any extra jelly in plastic containers. The flavour was quite delicate, however it worked very well with roast lamb. Personally, when I make this again I will add just a little more mint and an extra squeeze of lemon juice just to amp the flavour up a little – not because I the recipe isn’t good the way it is, but rather because I like things that aren’t quite so delicate – for me it needs a little more “kick.”
Another tree that does it’s thing in my garden during autumn is my crab apple tree.
I always wanted to plant a crab apple tree because I have wonderful memories of visiting my grandad when I was young and seeing his crab apple tree fruiting. All the kids would chase each other around the tree, grabbing the small fruit and trying to eat them even though they were super tart, and being convinced that if we bit into the right ones we would find the crab that lives in the middle. Its amazing what goes through your head as a child lol! I remember my grandma explaining that when she was young they used to make crab apple jelly with the fruit. So, when my tree was planted I had visions of being able to make jars of beautiful crab apple jelly. Unfortunately, my tree took its sweet time producing enough fruit to make even one jar of jelly, but this year it finally did the job. You can click here for the recipe. Crab apple jelly has quite a fragrant flavour and is beautiful on pikelets or scones and makes a lovely gift with a little ribbon wrapped around the top. It’s a really old fashioned jelly but its super delicious and definitely worth trying.
I hope you love it as much as I do.
Until next time. Happy cooking! 🙂