Last summer I made a batch of Blackberry syrup. My recipe is HERE. Hubby really loves it so I decided this year I’d make it earlier so he could enjoy it before summer even begins.
So when I made it three weeks ago, I also made some cherry syrup from the 2006 cherries in the freezer. I followed the same recipe as with the blackberry except I rinsed all of the sugar off of the frozen cherries first. (Blackberries are frozen without sugar.)
The three-week wait is over and here is my lovely cherry soda. The amount of syrup to seltzer water depends on your taste. I use less syrup for a less sweet drink. The syrup would also be great on ice cream and in yogurt. Or right from the jar!
Oh yum, that looks soo good! Why do you have to freeze cherries with sugar? Just asking because I found out a guy I know has a whole orchard of sour cherries and I am planning to pick some in the summer 🙂
Dave’s experience with freezing cherries (he’s done it longer than me) is they keep longer if they are packed in sugar. You can just lay them on a sheet and freeze them and then bag them. That’s how we do the blackberries. If you are planning to eat them within the year, I’d do that. I’m pretty stingy with our cherries so I save them because our crop is so fickle. Supposedly which ever way you pack the cherries they are only good for a year. But I just used the 2006 ones to make the syrup and I tasted them before making that and they were fine. Here are some instructions which follow Ball Blue Book (the bible of freezing) – we just mix the sugar with the cherries – no cooking! http://www.pickyourown.com/freezing.html
Thanks Lynda! I still have some blackberries and raspberries from last year in the freezer that I didn’t have time to make into jam, but other than that, we’re pretty good at using up fruit within a year. I am definitely planning to use up the cherries (should I get to pick them) immediately for jam, but it’s good to know that they keep longer that way!