Shrubs are a great way to extend the life of seasonal fruit like peaches, apples and even crabapples. The vinegar preserves the fruit’s essence and flavor into the winter when fresh fruit options are more limited. Crabapples are the only apples native to North America and while they can be quite sour—and, for some, less pleasing to eat than apples—they’re perfect for fall shrubs. There are many varieties, and the crabapple is a common landscape tree with attractive spring blossoms. Begin checking the fruit in August and continue through October to find the ripest crabapples throughout the season. As with any foraged ingredient, always take care to ID crabapple fruit correctly before eating it. Make sure to choose only unsprayed fruit and seek permission before harvesting on private or public land. 

A sound way to tell if crabapples are ripe is to cut the fruit across the middle to check if the seeds are brown. If the seeds are brown, and the fruit is red or yellow-orange, it should be ripe and ready to pick. You can also tell if the fruit is ripe by giving it a gentle squeeze—it should have a slight give.

My crabapple shrub recipe also works with any ripe “regular” apple variety, though I prefer the crabapple for its particularly pointed tartness. Red crabapples yield a beautiful pink shrub, or choose golden yellow crabapples for an amber-toned shrub.

Crabapples are an incredible foraged fruit source available from late summer to mid fall. You can mix crabapple varieties or stick to a “single tree batch” for your shrub. Taste and acidity ranges between crabapple varieties.