My husband & I just moved this winter into a new home & there is a 15 foot apple tree on the property. My mom says they are crab apples. Can someone tell me what the heck crab apples are. Are they useful for food, or just decorative? Can they be eaten? Is it worth keeping the tree? We have a small lot & not much room for trees. I would love to plant a tree that I want, such as the Magnolia tree I have been growing in a pot indoors for the last year. But, I don't want to uproot a tree that I might wish I would have kept. Thanks for your input:)

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z5b

Thanks so much Terry:) I guess I will keep her around then...have always wanted to try my hand at making jelly & jam

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z5b

I think my mom just use an apple jam recipe and substituted crabapples, but here are some crabapple recipes I found online.
crabaple pickles (scroll down to the beginning of the Cs--bold type Cs)
crabapple jam
crabapple jam and other recipes

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Terry

May the force be with you

the key with "eating" crabapples is to make sure they are fuly ripe. My fiancee tells me that she and her cousins and siblings used to eat the ones off her grandmother's trees all the time. Also, my cousins used to live in WA and would talk about eating crabapples - but I've never had one. So, now, I have a crapapple in the yard and the fruit is setting (put in the ground last year). I'm told that if it is not fully ripe it will be quite tart and it takes months to be fully ripe.

Chrissy - since my fiancee is originally from the Rockford, IL area - assumption is that if her grandmother's trees had the time to set and ripen - yours will also.

Jon

I just want to thank everyone for telling me how nice crab apple trees look when they bloom & the many uses I may find for mine instead of chopping it down...it is in bloom now & it is gorgeous...look


I am SO glad I kept it!! Thanks you guys

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z5b