In another food preservation workshop organised by the Richmond Food Security at Garratt Wellness Center, Arzeena brought crab apples to make crab apple sauce for canning. There was a bumper crop of crab apples at the Richmond Sharing Farm, Arzeena told me.

The crab apple sauce is very tangy and needs quite a bit of sugar to sweeten it.

Ingredients

• crab apples
• sugar

Source: Arzeena

Instructions

Prepare canner:

Any large pot can be a canner. Just ensure that the pot is tall enough to hold water at least 2.5cm/1 inch deeper than your tallest jar. Place a cooling rack on the bottom of the pot, to raise the jars off the surface (helps to avoid excessive agitation). You can make a canning rack by tying a few old jar rings together with twist ties or twine. Otherwise, line the bottom of the canner with towels.

Prepare jars:

Wash with hot, soapy water, rinsing well. Inspect jars, and discard any with nicks. chips, or scratches, as these flaws can cause breakage. Set the jars into your canner, fill with water, and bring to simmering. Do not boil. Keep warm until ready to fill.

Prepare lids:

Wash with hot, soapy water, rinsing well. Heat the seals in hot, not boiling water, for 5 minutes. Rings do not need to be heated. When using, remove, remove lids from hot water using a non-metallic device, rubber gloves, or a magnetic stick. Avoid using any tools which may scratch or nick the sealing compound or the inside liner of the lid.

Trim the top and end of the crab apples. Cook the crab apples with some water (like 1/4 to 1/2 cup) until they becomes very soft.

Add one of two cinnamon sticks and a few cloves for flavoring.

Use a food mill to process the crab apples to apple sauce.

Return the apple sauce to stove and add sugar to taste. Cook until the sugar dissolved.

Canning Process:

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) headspace. Remove air bubbles with a none metallic spatula and adjust headspace, if neccessary. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to finger-tip tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to boil and process for amount of time required depending on the size of the jar. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.