Saturday, September 24, 2022

Feast of Crabs

18 crabapples swarm around a lone regular-sized red apple
Crabapples gather around a lone McIntosh.

It's been crabby here! 

Above, left to right: AAX 11, Hewe's Crab (review forthcoming), and the delightful Chestnut Crabapple disport themselves around a single McIntosh (for scale).

I've already had Trailman and Centennial crabapples this summer. Both toothsome and sweet little flavor balls.

Two small apples with peach-red blushes and long thin stems
Trailman (L) and Centennial

To be sure, I have never heard of any of the pure wild American crabs being good to eat.

Perhaps that is the origin of the notion of sour little apples, good only for jelly and cider.

Of course, not all crabapples are bred for eating out of hand. Some are for cider, and some are purely ornamental.

Some are all three, though.

In modern parlance, crabapples are just little apples. Apples of all sizes taste all kinds of different from each other (not that you can prove it at the supermarket).

If you find some tasty crabs, dig in!

The Mac is just for reference.

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