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Jammed!

Ideally, cherry trees require at least a month of very cold weather conditions for flowering. But, they are hardy enough to settle for less - until, they get used to the weather conditions they are forced to live in, i.e.

More than 10 years after the promised 2-3 years, we finally saw some fruits on our cherry tree this year. Thanks to the attractive colour of the fruits, the tree was a sight to behold! But, of course, looks can be deceptive.

This cherry has a sour taste and is made up of equal amount of pulp and hard pits. That's why, the monkeys and the birds decided to leave everything to us!

For a while, we thought of letting the fruits be - allow them to drop off naturally and enrich the soil. Somehow, that didn't seem okay. It was like doing injustice to our long wait. Since the fruits have a low shelf life, I decided to see if I could preserve it.

I'm not a stranger to making jams and preserves. For jams, I follow a standard recipe shared by a grand aunt of mine. It involves marinading coarse pulp of the fruit in sugar for about 6 hours. Cooking this mixture on a medium flame until reaching the jam consistency, and, a few drops of lemon at the end completes the process.  

 Things were going on predictably - until I removed it from the fire! Even before cooling, the jam became so hard that I couldn't pierce the sharpest knife in my collection through it! The sugar, probably, was the culprit. I had added a little more than usual to counter the sourness of the pulp.  I should have probably added some bananas instead.

 Quite a hopeless feeling, you know! After de-seeding about 300 cherries, I had cheered myself up by saying that the toughest part was behind me!!

I then thought of the only knight who could save me from distress of this kind......
 Apparently, a common kitchen disaster, Google had several reassuring  solutions to my problem. I decided to try the  easiest one -  to add water and re- cook.

As if by magic, the mix softened. This time, I removed the pan from the fire just before the mix reached the jam consistency and all was well.

Here's the result - not exactly my best, but edible. Hopefully, the next time I'll get it right!





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