Certain crabapples can be tasty

Q. Can I eat crabapples?

Beth from Canfield

A. Yes, you can! This is the time of year to harvest and eat them. But the best-eating crabapples were ready in August and are specific cultivars. Many of these cultivars have larger fruit than the 1/4-inch- to 1/2-inch-wide fruit of the most common crabapple cultivars. This late in the season, the ripe fruit are usually on the smaller side.

OSU Extension did a story a couple years back with Mike Lee, a nurseryman who works with crabapples. He loves them so much that he developed a recipe for apple butter from “Dolgo” crabapples. These crabapples are rather large – about the size of small plums and have a bright red flesh. Trees with larger fruit like this should be planted away from areas where people walk.

Our crabapple expert, Jim Chatfield, says most of us use crabapple trees in the landscape for the look – the bloom and the long-lasting red fruit through the winter months. Most of these cultivars have small fruit. He says most gardeners and public garden areas like these because they are not messy when the fruit falls to the ground, sidewalks and driveways. The smaller fruit are still edible, but are much more difficult to pick and tend to be more sour. It is difficult to get enough sugar to out compete the sour taste.

If you’re looking for the varieties you’ll want to eat, Jim suggests gardeners try Dolgo, Selkirk, Calloway and Ralph Shay varieties. You can visit these trees to check out how they grow, what the fruit look like and more on our research station in Wooster. OSU manages the Secrest Arboretum there where Jim and other horticultureists have “Crablandia” – a collection of numerous crabapple cultivars. The research station is called the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s (OARDC).

Birds love crabapples, but they will not eat them until the fruit have been through several periods of cold weather in the late fall. The University of Maryland tells us the birds will favor fruit that has frozen and thawed “several times.”

Visit go.osu.edu/eatcrabapples for more details and a recipe for crabapple butter. For a chart of cultivars and attributes to use in choosing the right crabapple for you, visit go.osu.edu/pickacrabapple.

Eric Barrett is OSU Extension educator for agriculture and natural resources in Mahoning County. Call the office plant and pest clinic at 330-533-5538 to submit your questions. Regular clinic hours are 9am to noon Mondays and Thursdays.