I've had a crabapple tree for 10 years and always ignored it....until now! I always let the birds swoop in this time of year and pick the tree clean. For lack of cranberry bogs in Kansas I thought I would give these the "Cranberry Treatment".
First step - get the crabapples off the tree!
Next step, clean and sort through the fruit.
Next I placed them into a large non-reactive pan with jalapenos, fresh ginger, cinnamon sticks, apple cider, honey, and sugar. This cooks until all of the berries burst open. They are then pressed through a fine mesh strainer. This is exactly like cooking cranberries.
Sweet, tart crabapple jelly.