My neighbors gave us luscious farm raised Michigan cherries as a thank you for watering their yard while away. My husband excitedly rinsed them and put them in a bowl for noshing.
He put the bowl in the dining room. (?)
Well, they were ripe, as farm cherries should be.
And we didn’t go into the dining room that often this week, except to dump off library books and mail.
You know how that goes.
Anyhoo. Low and behold, where are the fruit flies coming from?! I get asked.
Yeah.
So, rather than committing the horrible crime of throwing away these over ripe cherries, I picked through the ones that had turned (creating the fruit flies) and kept the rest to pit, mash up and throw in some vodka. I can have ripe cherry flavor all winter for cocktails, cookies and whatnot.
Here’s how you can do the same, and not have what I call, “farm fruit guilt”.
You’re welcome.
Bing Cherry Extract
Ingredients:
2 cups uber-ripe cherries, pitted and mashed up well with a pastry cutter or potato masher
350 ml. of decent vodka (we used Svedka, it’s good for the price. You don’t need Grey Goose or anything like that. Save that for the martinis, people.)
A clean and sterilized mason jar
A clean and sterilized bottle for storing, with a label
Cheesecloth and fine sieve
Directions:
Throw your mashed up cherries in a mason jar. Fill with vodka. Seal and store in indirect sunlight for two weeks.
Give it a shake once in a while.
After 2 weeks, drain through a fine sieve, then a second straining with cheesecloth lining your fine sieve to get out the finer particulates is best.
Use a funnel to pour the red liquid gold into your labelled bottle for storage.
Flora is an award-winning creative director in Chicago turned food and lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. She is also author to the popular BEE NATIVE! gardening book series and various children's books that celebrate the wonder and hard work of bees and butterflies. Her blog and social spaces inspire thousands to create, learn, cook, grow, and craft, making their world lovelier one pixel/petal/seed/bite/stitch/brushstroke at a time. Follow her on all the social spaces, YouTube, and Amazon, and get creative!
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