What I Ate Today

The tree in my garden which I thought was a Beech, has turned out be a Cherry tree.  What’s more, there seems to be a bumper crop of dark red cherries amongst the branches.  As a big fan of the fruit, this was a fantastic bonus.

The tree is huge and although we’d been picking a few here and there over the last few weeks, much of the fruit is out of human reach and destined to from the tree or be eaten by birds.  Not wanting to see part of nature’s bounty go to waste, and with a strong wind hastening gravity’s allure, out came my step ladder and I started to pick.  A couple of kilograms later, having made the merest of dents on the quantity of fruit on the tree, I began to wonder what to do with them?

Enter the Vodka.  I’m not a big fan of Russia’s favourite tipple, but I’m confident that the awesome staining power of the cherry can go some way to improving it.  One quick google later and BBC Good Food Magazine online had provided a simple recipe to follow:

• 400g Cherries
• 200g Caster Sugar
• 150ml Water
• 750ml Vodka.

In the absence of caster sugar, I substituted Golden Granulated Sugar and couldn’t resist adding extra cherries.  The recipe said to slit the cherries, but not cut in half.  It didn’t say anything about removing the stone.  I opted to use a £3 cherry pitting gadget from a local shop, which as well as removing the stones, leaves a couple of small slits behind in the fruit.  Dissolve the sugar in the water in a hot pan, add the de-stoned cherries.  When the sugar dissolves and juice starts to run, transfer the whole lot to your preserving jar and add the vodka.  I did sterilise the jars in a hot over, as if making jam, although I’m not sure you actually need to do this.  I used jars not bottles, as I didn’t have a bottle with a large enough neck to get the cherries in!

The recipe says to seal and leave for 4 weeks.  Many of the webpage comments suggest leaving it longer.  I’m hoping to keep at least one bottle until late September when hopefully, I’ll be able to drink a toast to the end of summer.

The remaining cherries went into the freezer, with the air sucked out of the bags using a straw.  Am not quite sure why the Internet suggested the pseudo-vacuum packed method, but it was good fun!

There are still so many cherries on the tree, it’s great to see so many birds, including many fledglings enjoying the fruit.  Although the tree blocks a large proportion of the sunlight from our garden, I think having a source of wonderful fruit on your doorstep is worth it.  My neighbours are talking about cutting the tree down.  I hope to dissuade them.