Canning Season - Cherry Syrup

So, in all this canning mess, I'd never thought to make any fruit syrup from my cherries until I talked to my mom.

G-d bless Google. I found a recipe right away, and the proper method to get the syrup canned.

Here's how this will look in all practicality:

You'll wash and then sterilize your jars and lids, and get to making your syrup. Once the syrup is finished, the hard work is mostly done.  Put everything in your jars, seal, water bath for 10-15 minutes (depending on your altitude) and voilá, you have cherry syrup for pancakes or ice cream!

Cherry Syrup, J.Stahl 2013

This is good for a couple of weeks in your fridge, so don't think about canning it without doing more research.

Pop a comment down below if you've decided this is also an option for your family, and let me know how yours turned out!

Canning Season - Cherry Pie Filling

Cherry Tree, J.Stahl 2013

As you may have seen from my previous posts, we have a cherry tree outside and I had a great desire to try my hand at canning this year.


So, I got myself a slew of cherries, found a recipe for allspice, another recipe for cherry pie filling and got myself some canning sugar and jars. OFF TO THE RACES!!!


The biggest step that is the hardest, is allowing yourself to let the cherries soak for 24 hours. It goes against everything I have ever heard about cherries before, but you do *not* want the bugs that are in those cherries ending up in your end product. As much as you love life, make sure that you soak your cherries in water and rinse them out very, very well before you pit them and get to work!!

This is how your cherries will look once they've soaked.

This is a really easy recipe, though it is a bit time consuming. The water bath portion of the recipe takes 30 minutes. If you have more than four jars, you're going to be doing this portion of the recipe for a while. No worries though, it pays off!!
 
Since our canning sugar has the equivalent to "Sure Gel", I went ahead and skipped that step. I'd made my own allspice with cloves that hadn't been ground, so I had an extra step of removing them prior to adding in the cherries. No biggie! This is an easy step, and at this point you remove the sauce from heat anyhow.

Move quickly and then get the jars put together, and place them in the water bath. Find a comfy spot in your kitchen and enjoy this rest time before you start removing everything from the pot and allow it to cool elsewhere.  Enjoy your quiet time. I sure did!

Cherry Pie Filling, J.Stahl 2013

I ended up with four jars and a little leftover in canning the cherry pie filling.

I ate the leftovers. No one was getting their grubby paws on my pie filling while it was still hot. No. MY filling!! YUM. All mine. It was really that good.

So, if you decided to make your own and didn't want to share because it was so delicious; drop a line below and let me know how it turned out!

Canning Season - Maraschino Cherries

Ripe Cherries, J. Stahl 2013

As you may have seen from two previous posts, we have a cherry tree outside. I wanted to try my hand at canning this year.

So, I ordered myself some Maraschino Liqueur, found a recipe, got myself some canning sugar and jars and was off to the races!

The recipe I used is not alcoholic, but I'd read a few others and figured out that I can substitute the liqueur for the same amount of juice called for and it works the same.

My changes are below:

250 ml water
250 ml Bols Maraschino - Likör
8 ounces Sweet Family Nordzucker Gelierzucker 1:1 - der Klassiker 1kg
6 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups (19 ounces) cherries, soaked 24 hours and pitted

Before I get going with photos of the end product, I thought you might like to learn how Maraschino Cherries are made in mass production. Just click here.  Fascinating, isn't it?


Your first step is to pick as many cherries as your heart desires. The second step is to soak those cherries for 24 hours. Do not argue. There are nasty little worms in it and you want to kill all of them. They'll come out of the cherries and die in the water. Trust me, it's nasty as all get out.... RINSE and soak some more somewhere in the 12 hour mark.

Pit your cherries and put them in a large ziplock unless you will be processing them immediately. Wash and then sterilize your jars and lids in boiling water. Dry these off completely.

Follow the recipe and carefully fill your jars up to the top. Put them in a water bath for 10 minutes and place somewhere to cool on their own before labeling and storing in your pantry. Or, if you're really curious - pop one of these jars into your fridge and test them out in the morning.

Here is the end product:

Maraschino Cherries, J. Stahl, 2013

Let me know what you think!  Drop a comment below and tell me if you've decided to make some of these lovely cherry preserves for yourself!

Anxiously awaiting cherries and Elderberries

Our Cherry Tree, June 2013, photo by J.Stahl

This is the most recent photo I have of our cherry tree outside. As you can see, we're in the middle of June, and no ripe cherries. Not even one. Usually, we'll have ripe cherries in abundance, but we're not there just yet!

We've had some of the coolest weather we've had until this week, since I arrived here in 2007. To tell you how crazy our weather has been, we've remained in the 30s and 40s in the mornings, and had highs in the 60s until early on in the month, and we started getting some warmer weather, and then had all that rain that some of you might have heard of that caused so much flooding.

The result of that, is unripe fruit, vegetables and grain. I'm sure our farmers are not appreciating that the wheat crop isn't even near ripe. I, however, I'm appreciating the fact I can leave the windows open for a few more days.  It's always such a pain when they're harvesting as it takes several days for all the dust to settle for me to not react to it.  And then we have the barley and rye harvesting.

Unripe cherries, June 2013, J.Stahl

As you can see, our tree is rather laden with fruit, so when they come in, we'll have our work cut out for us. I plan on trying to can as much as possible so that we can save a little money in the grocery department. My kids have canned cherries in some form, about once a month. I'll be trying to make maraschino and pie filling. I'll keep you posted!

Elder Tree, 2013, J.Stahl

Here is our elder tree. I've been slow to get outside and start picking the flowers, but now that our weather has changed; I need to get on that STAT.

To the left is a wonderful book that I purchased two years ago, right before my health bottomed back out. It is an investment. I found my copy on Amazon.de for 15€.

When I found out about our elder plant, I was so excited because I can now make my own Sambucol. Our local pharmacies have stopped carrying it, and I really need to get us on this vitamin protocol daily. I've been reluctant to start and then run out, if you know what I mean.  That really is a stupid sort of justification. Trust me, I'm working on it!

There are many things that you can do with the elder plant, such as pickle the shoots (like bamboo), pickle the buds, make fritters with the flowers, make water ice, ice cream, chutney, pudding,  elderflower syrup, Jams, drinks including: tea, vinegar, wine and liqueur, and cosmetics!

Here is a quote from the book about the elder is as follows:

"All parts of the elder were used medicinally by the Romans, and in pre-Roman times by the ancient Britons and Celts. In Pliny's day, the country people used elderberry juice as a hair dye, and Culpeper described how 'the hair of the head washed with the berries boiled in wine is made black'. John Evelyn claimed that it greatly assisted longevity and that the juice of the berries was effective 'against all infirmities whatever'."
Page 81, Edible Wild Plants & Herbs, A Compendium of Recipes and Remedies: The Perfect companion for every budding forager by Pamela Michael

Now you know what I'm looking forward to.  Do you have any interesting dietary changes that you plan to make this summer?  If so, drop me a comment below. I look forward to hearing from you!