Bye bye, cherries
My favorite fruit is pretty much done for the year, alas. This time though – for the first time in 3 years – I managed to make it to the pick-your-own orchard for sour cherries before they were all gone.
Cherry almond sauce, sour cherry jam, pie filling, cherry syrup (in lovely flip-top bottles), vanilla bean cherry jam, and even a couple quarts of cherries soaking in amaretto and bourbon with vanilla beans, respectively. I made some jam with regular pectin, which required about half and half fruit and sugar, and I made some with Pomona’s pectin, which only requires about 25% sugar and actually set up better. I’ll be using that from now on.
And for the first time I made jelly! I had juice left over from syrup making, so a little pectin later, it turns into this sparkling, jewel-like delicacy. I’d never go through all the trouble of making jelly on purpose, seeing as without any of the fruit in it it’s basically just flavored sugar – but it sure is pretty.