Crabapple harvest time?

So my mom has two big big crab apple trees. I was wondering when the appropriate time to pick was. They arent the red kind so they stay green.

Thanks all!!

Are you sure they are good for jelly or wine. I only use Dolgo Crabs, which will be ready in about three weeks.

No idea haha...there good enough to eat i know that, my son loves them. how can i tell if there good enough?

randomhero said:

No idea haha...there good enough to eat i know that, my son loves them. how can i tell if there good enough?

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Random this is not the answer I want to give you, but you'll really need to get some pictures of different crabapples online or in a book to identify what you have. Then do a search to see if anyone uses them for any baking, apple cider or jelly. If so, then go ahead with the wine. Dolgo Crab is the most popular for these purposes but there are a few others. Possibly you could take a small branch and a few apples to a good nursery and they'll be able to identify it.

We live on a horse farm, horses have been fed apples for decades around here, wild or escaped cultivated or crab apples grow all over the place, all open pollinated so I am sure most of ours are not in a book. Many are turning red right now. Most are about half to a third the size of storebought apples. Pulled one yesterday and it was firm, juicey and very sweet and tart, ON AUG 2nd! Also found one trees with little 1 inch wide apples, the tannins from one bite made it down to the back of my tongue and I thought my whole head was going to dry up. We have a cider press this year and are going to make cider and cyser. We also have some cultivated apple trees. What do you do when the apples ripen widely appart, juice them and freeze the juice until you get enough to make a batch? Wolf, what is in your bags??? WVMJ

I would think if they are good enough to eat, then they would be good enough to make wine with.

WV, I would freeze them first then make juice.

Freezer space goes to berries, wife clear on preference for berries as a priority. WVMJ

WVJack, the really tart ones make a good wine. Don't have my notes handy, but if you want will round them up and let you know how I made it. Arne.

WVMJack, those are crab apples in the bags. I picked 100 pounds that year, snipped the stems off everyone, washed them and stuck them in the freezer. Them I smashed everyone with the end of a 2x4 since I didn't have a crusher and processed them further with my drill and a drywall mixer. Take my advice skip the drywall mixer, it scaped all my plastic fermenters and I had shards of plastic in every batch. A great moderator suggested that to me but I won't mention HER name to protect her reputation. [I know] Like you Jack I now have an apple shredder and press for cider from Happy Valley.

This year I'm picking them and throwing then right in the freezer. I am not destemming them as two years ago that took many hours to do in front of the tv with a pair of side cutters. Do you really think it'll make a difference taking them off? They don't do it for cider.

I don't believe you are going to notice any difference, Dan. If you do though, let us know. The little crab apples make a very interesting wine, tho. I don't pick mine til very late in the season. Lots of them on the ground before I start picking. Could probably pick them now, they are pulling the branches down to the ground. Arne.

I dont know what kind they are. I am going to take a branch of them to an orchard here soon. I am wotking overnights this week so I am basically worthless until i am off it.

What i do know is that one tree is always very tart and the other one is quite sweet. If that helps anything haha.

Thanks Arne, I have to map out our trees and taste test each one, most of our wild trees are less than a golf ball size, not sure when to start picking, if they never get sweet how do you know when the really tannic ones are ready? WVMJ

Arne said:

WVJack, the really tart ones make a good wine. Don't have my notes handy, but if you want will round them up and let you know how I made it. Arne.

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I agree with Arne, don't pick them until atleast when they start falling off the tree on their own.

There starting here and there now...but ill give them a couple weeks still

You will get a few falling early, but I wait til they start falling a lot. Don't know if it makes much difference, they cant
get much tarter than they are right now. Arne.

I finally found a crabapple tree down here, got all excited, then was told they are bland tasting. They use them to make a jelly and applesauce but they are bland. I passed.

If you freeze them first do you have to cut them up before you put them in the apple shredder drum that turns them into little chunks? WVMJ

WVMountaineerJack said:

If you freeze them first do you have to cut them up before you put them in the apple shredder drum that turns them into little chunks? WVMJ

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I wouldn't think so, Jack. The shredder I have will take a full size apple and make it into chunks. Mite bounce for a bit, but then will grab and turn it into little pieces. Arne.

I just got around 100Lbs of crabs from my neighbour, plus another 80Lbs from a friend of not-crab apples. That's as much as we know

I'll be renting the copper and crusher from my LHBS, should be able to get 5Gals from these bad boys. Last year I did 3 Gals and turned them into 1Gal Caramel Apple Wine, 1 Gal Spiced Apfelwine, and 1 Gal plain. They are pretty acidic (I'll have to watch that this year), but VERY good!

the_rayway said:

I just got around 100Lbs of crabs from my neighbour, plus another 80Lbs from a friend of not-crab apples. That's as much as we know

I'll be renting the copper and crusher from my LHBS, should be able to get 5Gals from these bad boys. Last year I did 3 Gals and turned them into 1Gal Caramel Apple Wine, 1 Gal Spiced Apfelwine, and 1 Gal plain. They are pretty acidic (I'll have to watch that this year), but VERY good!

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3 GALLONS!! I wonder why you didn't get much more than that. I ended up with closer to 20 gallons with 100 pounds of crabapples. This years I expect a lot more since I now have a cider crusher and press.

Are you blending everything together from the beginning or doing the apples and crabapples separate? I like to do the separate then make my blends before bottling as it's easier to control the acid with apples having almost none and crabapples almost all acid.