With access to fresh ripe fruit growing around the area that I am working at the
gardening and renovating projects in Longview, WA, I think there are many ways I can satisfy my sweet tooth with natural goodies- fresh ripe fruits and making minimally processed goods from the fruit.
One of the things I love a lot are gooey and sticky things, like caramels, which is why I love dates. And jellies and jams are also so tasty to me, too! So, today, I made a cherry plum syrup by boiling down some cherry plum juice that I had made earlier. I brought the cherry plum juice to a boil and then let it simmer until I got it as thick as I preferred it to be. I did not add any extra sugar to it,
honey or otherwise, because I rather adore tart and sour things, too, which are qualities I find exceptional in the cherry plums. They're pretty tart! Originally, I had started the boiling in a pot, but I switched to doing it in a pan so that I would have a larger surface area and thinner spread of the juice, which would make boiling the
water off faster.
I put the cherry plum syrup I made into a jar, but I will be refrigerating it, because I have not learned how to do water bath canning or pressure canning yet.
What are some of your favorite natural goodies? To pick and eat fresh? To make something out of? To preserve? Ferment?
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