Looking into it they look like crabapples.

Ariel - that is probably exactly what they are. It's kindof early for regular apples to be that size this far north.

I remember many many years ago when I was a kid in the '60s when we owned a plot of land in N. Cape May and it used to have wild crabapples on it. Whenever we went down to South Jersey, you would see crabapple trees all over the place.

Are crabapples worth trying to grow to eat off the tree?

All crabapples are edible however most of them are not good for eating out of hand. They are better used for making cider or pickles, jams and jellies. And even some of these more ornamental forms are just too sour to be used for even those purposes. Typically, it is only the larger varieties that can be eaten like an apple, plucked from the tree - Dolgo, Chestnut and Centennial are some of the more popular eating varieties.

I think even if you have a named fruiting variety they are probably better for cooking - like preserves/jellies versus out of hand eating. We used to have seckel pears on that property down in Jersey too, although those were a bit sweeter for out-of-hand eating.

The one issue with crabapples however, is if you have any red cedars around. If you do, there's a potential to get cedar-apple rust and that just really ruins the tree.

Could they be used to make pectin?

Crab apples are the very definition of pectin. Propagation? Most simply by seed from an apple that has fallen on the ground for ripeness.

I have processed buckets of crabapples into juice with good results. Sample an apple to make sure it has little or no bitter overtones. When a few are on the ground there are plenty ripe on the tree.

I don't see why it's assumed they're necessarily crab apples. They could be any apple imo. They're all small early in the season.

It's not the size that defines it; it is mostly the shape. As an example, a red delicious looks like a red delicious even when very small. Crab apples have the shape almost of a quince.

"Crab apples have the shape almost of a quince."

As do many apples when still small. Based on the size of the foliage, I am more inclined to think this an apple rather than a crabapple. And unless it is one of the very large fruited cultivars, the tree seems to be far more heavily fruited than most crabs are at this time of year.

I am 99.9% sure those are eating apples, which variety, you would be best to ask the owner. propagation is fairly easy, if you are grafting. otherwise, you can't grow that variety from seed. You can grow a tree from seed, but it will not be that variety, it will be some mix of the parent trees which often produces lousy fruit.

Johnmerr, I've seen many crabapples and many eaters and cookers. They come in various shapes and I don't think you can generalise. I still think this could very well be an orchard apple, many of which look like this when immature.

Well, I am certainly no expert on apples.

We have a tree at my house that grows mini apples. They're not crab apples, just smaller apples. So that's another possibility.

I walked by and took another pic today

Those are orchard quality apples They are much easier to graft than citrus. google grafting apple trees.

My parents planted a Mcintosh apple tree last spring and the apples our tree was growing this season look just like the ones in the photos you're sharing. About baseball sized with slight reddening on the side facing the sun.

I'm surprised and jealous so many apples on that tree are untouched. All but 1 apple from our tree have been presumably stolen by squirrels. I'm pretty sure it's squirrels cause we've seen them stealing our peaches and snacking on the peach tree