What is the name of this fruit?
- Thread starter gentoo
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I can't say for sure but that looks a lot like a crab apple. There are many varieties of them. What does the fruit taste like?
Looks like crab apples to me too. We had them all over the place were I grew up in Ohio. Couldn't eat them, too tart and not sweet (I can't tell you how I know that, but I imagine at some point we did try to eat them). They might make wine, but I doubt it. Seems wine makers have made wine out of just about anything, but I've never heard of crab apple wine.
Haha- crabapple wine is my best white wine. However, crabapples for eating/winemaking aren't those little ornamental fruits- they are bigger than you'd think, and many people make those canned red rings from them. They taste great, but are a bit more tannic than regular apples.
But that fruit in the photo looks tiny, with a leaf like a cherry type of bush.
They were small, cherry sized, on the trees around my home when I was a kid. Must have been ornamentals. I think the birds liked them though.
I don't think I've ever seen the full-sized ones. Or if I did, I probably thought they were young apples.
Like I mentioned, there are many varieties of crab apple. I'm not ashamed to say I've eaten many of them as a child. They are not poisonous, they all are technically "edible" but not in my experience palatable. Some as I'm told are more palatable than others, depending on the variety I guess.
Ha ha, my family had a tree like that when I was growing up. The birds wouldn't even bother with them, they'd just end up on the ground.
gratus fermentatio
Well-Known Member
They do look like crab apples, maybe an ornamental variety. What strikes me as odd though, is that a lot of the fruit is growing upright on the stems. I've never seen that with any type of apple, but then I'm not an apple expert either. I think your best (and safest) bet would be to take a cutting (both leaf & fruit) to your local county extension agent & have them positively identify it for you.
Regards, GF.
They're most likely crabapples. In a small quantity like 5% they can add tannin and "spunk" to any cider or wine. I have used ornamental crabs in cider with good success. Taste one. If it is spicy and tart, that's what you'd expect and it's good in a small proportion of the juice.
