Picking cherries at twilight

The main cherry bush

It's been a hot day today and things didn't go exactly as planned. I was tired, hot and grumpy when I decided to go and sit on the front step.  The temperature inside and outside were about equal and outside there might be a breeze.

I stepped out the door and the red Nanking cherries beside the step caught my eye. They aren't the large plump varieties that come from BC or Washington. They have a huge pit compared to the size of the fruit but I like their tart taste, and they grow in my front yard!  I got a bowl from the kitchen and proceeded to listen to the magpies natter before going to roost as I picked cherries.

They grow in clusters

We have two bushes in the front.  We assume the main one in the middle of the lawn was planted by a previous owner.  The one by the door is a volunteer, thanks no doubt, to the magpies and other feathered friends. Most of the cherries were ripe and slid easily from the branches into my hands. I dropped a fair number on the ground as I picked by the handful.  In about 20 minutes I had 3/4 of a bowl and there were lots left for the birds. I don't know whether the hares that hang out in the yard like cherries but there are plenty on the ground for them too.

This was before they boiled over

When you pick fruit you have to eat at least some of it. Because they are quite acidic, I ate as many as  I dared and then searched the internet for what to do with Nanking cherries. They are pretty soft and they don't keep well. Liqueur seems a popular choice as do jelly and syrup.  None of these products are high on my list. I have, however, been making kombucha since last February and I use a variety of juices for the secondary fermentation.  I can't exactly buy Ocean Spray cherry juice so why not make juice out of them and use it in the next batch of kombucha? (Kombucha, that's another post.)

I put the cherries in a large bowl and covered them with water so that the leaves and other bits would float to the top where I could skim them off.  After I washed them I put the cherries in a pot with about a cup of water.  One source said to mash them with a potato masher but she also said that it worked better when she got in there with her hands and squished the cherries. Right.  I'm not particularly bothered by the textures of the foods I eat but I hate getting my hands in slime.  I never liked finger painting as a kid and I can't imagine taking up pottery. At least squishing the cherries would be room temperature rather than slimy and cold.  In I went, only one hand though, and dutifully squished and squashed until I thought I had most of the cherries broken.  Next I boiled them and, of course, the minute I turned my back they boiled over leaving a sticky mess on the stove.

I guess if you want your juice or syrup or jelly to be picture perfect you strain it laboriously through a sieve lined with cheese cloth. Phooey on that noise.  I've got nothing against pulp so once the cherries had boiled for a while I poured them into a colander, took the potato masher to them and then finished the mashing process by pushing the pulp against the bottom and sides with a wooden spoon.  That left me with a little bit of pulp and the pits which I consigned to our new composting bag that will be picked up by the city for the first time on Monday.

I decided to take a stick blender to the resulting pulp and juice. We have a very fancy new blender contraption but I thought that if I had messed up and there was a pit somewhere in there I'd rather wreck an less expensive appliance. All went well in that part of the operation. The juice is now cooling on the counter and I'll put it in the fridge so it will be ready for the kombucha next Tuesday. I confess I did put some sugar in it.

In filling the bottle with juice I spilled some on the counter.  Rather than waste it I did a taste test and slurped at the puddle with a straw.  It tasted pretty good. I cleaned up most of the mess in the kitchen, including some cherry juice that managed to make its way onto the backsplash behind the sink.  All in all, it was an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours on a hot summer night and I'm looking forward to the next batch of kombucha so I can enjoy the results of the evening's work.  I'll let you know how it tastes.