Still no new knitting content to share, but last night I took a break from the Big Secret Project to make cherry jam with my friend Diane, who brought over a cooler filled with about 16 pounds of sour Morello and sweet Black cherries from the trees in her orchard. Here’s what we made over the next three hours (We’ve got this canning thing down to a science, let me tell you. What would once have taken me the better part of a weekend I can now do in half a day, and with a second pair of hands it goes even faster.) in our own patented assembly line fashion:
Morello and Black Cherry Jam with Kirsch
Sour Cherry Preserves with Almonds (Lip-smackingly good over cheese)
Black Forest Preserves (Sweet cherry jam infused with cocoa and amaretto… unbelievably delicious over ice cream. We had to taste test, naturellement!)
We made roughly fifteen eight ounce jars of each, and Diane left the last four-cup baggie of frozen cherries in my freezer. Thanks, Diane! They won’t go to waste.
It was a fabulous break from the deadline knitting (which I have to do with my right elbow resting on an icepack at this point, due to a sudden case of the dreaded Knitter’s Elbow), even though I felt a little guilty taking the evening off. There’s something so satisfying about making preserves: that sense of connection to our past, the camaraderie of shared labor, the glistening jewel-like colors of the final product and their delectable flavor. All this rolled into an activity that makes me feel productive and frivolous at the same time.
Comments welcome