Wild Fruit Jelly

A very mature crab apple tree was in our garden we moved to our home and it gave us many years of fruit. Crab apple jelly was by far the tastiest thing to make with it all and it kept us in good supply throughout the year. 

I tried many recipes but the most successful was a hybrid recipe I created from an old Mrs Beeton’s Household Management book and The River Cottage Cookbook. You simply need crab apples, sugar and lemon juice. Some people add 50/50 blackberries or rowan berries to the mix.

It is the perfect accompaniment to roast meat and poultry, cheese, natural or Greek yogurt and cold meats.

Once you have perfected your recipe, you can replace the quantities of crab apple with other fruits to create different jellies e.g rowanberries, blackberries, elderberry, red and black currants.

If you don't want to go foraging, you can grow your own trees! We recommend starting with Crab Apple, Rowan Tree and Elder