Wild Apple

I love flowering tree season on PEI. Right now, roadsides and hedgerows are alive with blossoms of Chokecherry, Pin Cherry, Hawthorne, Serviceberry and soon, the showiest of all: wild Apple.

Unlike many of our other familiar fruit, Apples are not native to PEI. Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, and wild Cherries have all been here for thousands of years, but Apples were brought by the earliest settlers in the 1700s. Given the limited and unpredictable nature of wild fruit, having reliable and delicious Apples nearby would have been a welcome source of nutrition, as well as cider, vinegar, and dried fruit for the long winter.

Today’s wild Apples are descendants of these early imports and those brought in later for commercial production (by 1910, Island fruit growers were cultivating 114,000 Apple trees). Birds and mammals helped spread Apple seeds province-wide, as did hungry travellers: for example, the many wild Apple trees lining the Confederation trail are legacies of Apple cores tossed from trains.

On my own land, there are dozens of Apple trees in the old pastures, thanks to seeds that passed through horses and sheep that once grazed there. It’s not uncommon to come across a grove of old Apple trees in the midst of today’s woodlands: “Orchards so old they have forgotten where the farmhouse is” in the words of my favourite quote of E.B. White.

It’s no secret that Apples are edible, but you may not realize that Apple flowers can be eaten too, and have a lovely, delicate floral-apple flavor. They are nice on their own, as a garnish, and make a lovely syrup or jelly. I have a friend who painstakingly painted individual Apple petals with egg white, dusted them with confectioner’s sugar, and then dried them to make delicate candies. That’s more patience than I have, but if you have lots of blossoms and time on your hands, go for it!

Of course, Apple flowers become Apples, and so each bloom you pick is one less potential fruit. However, Apple trees produce far more flowers than fruit, and removing some blossoms is unlikely to have a major impact on production (just be sure you have landowner permission and are not in a commercial orchard!). With wild trees, the flowers are often tastier than the fruit itself.

If you are looking for something new to add to your wild food repertoire this year, give Apple blossoms a try. They are among the many edible flowers of PEI Untamed!