Free fruit??!!?!?

Like many I was unaware of the variety of fruit bearing trees across London that can be picked by anyone from the general public. This year my Dad collected some apples from an apple tree he passed while going from work. Normally my Dad will get plums from our neighbour and will say things like: “I am going to use them”, “I’m going to make a pie, jam etc. etc. etc” with the result of many going "off". This time I thought before nature decided the fate of these free apples, I would take them and make some apple chutney. Now the recipe is a mash of a few recipes I found on the internet and will keep for about 6-8 weeks if not longer in sterilised jars. I read the longer it is kept, the more the flavour matures. I have inserted the recipe below with pictures. It was quite simple to do and only took an hour. You basically put all the ingredients in a pot and leave to cook on a low stove fire. The natural pectin in the apple skins will help the chutney to thicken. It definitely made me think about possibly selling my batch for Christmas and/or using them for gifts. So why not see what’s growing in your local area and try making something delicious from them or better yet eat them as part of your 5 and day!!!!

Ingredients (seen in image below)

900g apples (9 medium sized apples), chopped and skin left on

100g cranberries

1 medium sized red onion

3 cloves of garlic

50g raisins

2 tsp salt

340g sugar

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp mixed spice

425ml vinegar (any can be used, I used distilled)

The ingredients looked like the following after 20-30 minutes of cooking on a low fire

Below shows how the ingredients looked like after an hour of cooking with washed jars being sterilised in hot boiling water

Apple and cranberry chutney place into jars