Kia ora whānau,
During week one at Moera Holiday Kindergarten, tamariki were busy making crab apple jelly with teachers.
The process started with picking the crab apples off the tree. One of the teachers, Sally had to get on the ladder to get most of them as they were high up. Once collected they were soaked in vinegar water. After this, we cut the crab apples into half, this was a big job. We were lucky to have lots of tamariki help with cutting them with a special safe knife. Sally then boiled them for 45 minutes, when this was done they were left overnight on a muslin cloth to drain all the juice.
The next morning, ngā tamariki helped measure the sugar and weigh the crab apple juice. These were mixed then put back on the stove for the sugar to dissolve. Once the sugar had dissolved, it was transferred into glass jars.
This process was thoroughly enjoyed and there were lots of conversations about what tamariki were doing - learning skills like cutting and washing fruits, measuring the sugar, weighing the juice and stirring.
The jars of crab apple jelly were offered to whānau for a koha donation, we hope they enjoy this on a piece of toast at home just like we did for our morning tea.
