Our friend Wilde, who knows about growing fruit & veg, and likes to preserve them, told us of a wonderful place near Spilamberto where we could get some great cherries at a good price. I don't remember whose suggestion it was that I have a go at making some jam, but the next thing I knew we were all in the Pandina and racing the stormy skies to get to this farm. I saw a view from a bridge as we crossed, and asked if we could go back so I could take a picture (FYI it's the Panaro river).
The cherries in my box are Moretta cherries, a local variety. We bought seconds, specifically for making jam, and paid a very reasonable price. They also had Duroni cherries, at less than half the price you'd pay for a carton in the city, so we bought enough to feast all week!
I shall try to keep these chronicles of a cherry cooker as brief as possible. The first task was to take out all the cherry stones. This takes a very long time, particularly if the only tool you have is a small knife. Luckily for me, after a few hours, L had the brilliant idea of converting the olive-pitter I'd given her many Chanukahs ago that sits pristine in the kitchen drawer to a cherry-pitter. I was watching the Italian Cup Final, and the excitement of using this little tool far outshone the football on the tv. Warning: Moretta cherry juice is dark, and difficult to remove, even with a pumice stone.
Nu, cherries without stones now needed to be cooked. I looked for recipes online, and found several. I chose the one that suggested the best way to eat the finished product was on a piece of challah. Cherries went into the biggest pot we have, with 1/3 the amount of sugar recommended by the recipe, and half a cup of lemon juice. The recipe said cook for 20 minutes. 1 hour 45 minutes later I thought the cherries were as jammy as they would ever get and called my personal taster over for her expert opinion.
L survived the tasting, and claimed to enjoy it, so it was time to put the jam in the jars. This was maybe the hardest part as everything was so hot and sticky. At the end, there were 4 actual jars of a jam-like substance. I boiled two of them for a while to try and make them last until autumn, and when everything cooled down, I put labels on the jars (to help remember which ones were for now and which could be put away for a while).
Not quite the end of the story, my friends. Since all those cherries only made 4 little jars, we thought we'd go back and get some more! So yesterday, without Wilde (sorry) we went back to the cherry farm. Once we found the entrance (we were really sorry Wilde wasn't with us at that point), we drove up to the barn. Turns out that the cherry season is basically over. No more Morette, no more Duroni ... there were a few Amarene left on the table and that was it. So we bought 4 kg of Amarene cherries!
I'm not sure how many episodes of "Sherlock" I watched whilst getting rid of the cherry stones. I'm ashamed to say that whilst stirring the cherries when they were cooking, I found 17 stones. I do hope that was most of them. I was a little distracted because the Or 'Ammim weekly "Cup of Tea with Rav AJ" started before I'd finished cooking, and I was stirring with one hand and discussing Brit Milah on Zoom with the other. FYI, the same amount of sugar and lemon juice was added, and roughly the same amount of time was used for cooking. These cherries were a bit more pulverised by the cooking, and the result was runnier than the first batch. Definitely preserves rather than jam. But the official taster gave a seal of approval, and the jars are now cooling in the kitchen.
What's next? We were hoping for apricots, but a frost in March killed most of the flowers, so not this year. We are thinking about plums. Meanwhile, Wilde just sent us a message that the first cucumbers have been picked from the allotment. I think it may be time for some pickling!
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