Man cocktail. Share yours.

[OldGnome]

A friend has some sour cherry trees and he shares his crop with me. I have a few trees too but also plenty of birds that eat them, haven't found a good solution for that.

I have a peach tree in my backyard and have had trouble with birds getting to the fruit before I can. I purchased some landscaping netting a few weeks ago and ran a layer around the tree. I was going to try going over the tree, but that just wasn’t going to happen. The top of the tree is open, but the birds are not (yet?) smart enough to figure that out.

So far, birds hav attempted to get to the fruit, but the netting has prevented that.

Something to consider.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[stamasd]

Yeah, I tried netting several years in a row, even covered the top of the trees with it. The problem is that the birds I deal with are very small, and they can sneak in and out through small openings. I was never able to tie the netting tight enough to eliminate all possible openings. And when I say very small I mean barely bigger than a bumblebee.
Also the trees are getting taller and the tops are hard to reach now. I did prune the tops but a little too late. I have vertigo and can't climb on a ladder to reach them so there's that also.

 

[OldGnome]

Yeah, I tried netting several years in a row, even covered the top of the trees with it. The problem is that the birds I deal with are very small, and they can sneak in and out through small openings. I was never able to tie the netting tight enough to eliminate all possible openings. And when I say very small I mean barely bigger than a bumblebee.
Also the trees are getting taller and the tops are hard to reach now. I did prune the tops but a little too late. I have vertigo and can't climb on a ladder to reach them so there's that also.

I bought my netting at Lowe’s and the holes are about 1/2” square. Maybe less.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[stamasd]

Yeah I think that's the one I used. No luck.
I don't know how they got in and out, but over the course of 2 days the trees went from fruit-laden to bare. And that was before the cherries started ripening at all. Happened 3 years in a row.

 

[The Knize]

My parents had a massive sour cherry tree when I was growing up that was highly productive. i remember the cherry pies my Mother made from that production was being some of the best pie items I have ever consumed. But there came a time when the birds discovered those cherries--in my minds eye mostly black birds--and that was all she wrote. Something out of a Hitchcock movie.

Very interesting about buying sour cherry pits. Lots of Penzeys around me.

 

[The Knize]

<Aviation - gin, maraschino liqueur, lemon juice. (other versions call for creme de violette. Mine don't)>

No creme de violette and you lose the color that was my favorite part of that cocktail!

 

[stamasd]

Very interesting about buying sour cherry pits. Lots of Penzeys around me.

Ugh, bad news. I just looked at the Penzeys website and they don't list mahlab anymore. The last time I bought some (about a year ago) the cashier had mentioned to me that she didn't know if they were going to carry it anymore. Something to do with difficulties acquiring them because of the political situation in Turkey. There are a few listings on Amazon but it's expensive. Probably worth checking in an actual Penzeys store since you have a few around.

 

[The Knize]

Interesting. There seems to be a lot of pomegranate stuff from Turkey around these days.

 

[CurtisB81]

Moonshine and cola..

 

[The Knize]

I swung by a brick and mortar Penzeys. Mahlab was a mystery to this particular location. Seems to be available on-line from various sources though. Also, there seems to be a suggestion that it might be available from Greek or middle-Eastern groceries. My favorite middle-Eastern grocery seems to have pulled up stakes to be replaced by an Aldi, though!

Stamasd, does your sour cherry liqueur involve whole sour cherries, just the pits, or just the "bodies"?

 

[stamasd]

Yeah, Greek stores would be my next suggestions.
The liqueur uses sour cherries with pits. The whole fruit.
I'll do a writeup later tonight.

 

[The Knize]

<I'll do a write-up later tonight.>

Do not feel like you have to give away the family recipe! I seem to have some sour cherries in the freezer. They looked to me like they had been pitted on first glance, but perhaps not. I cannot think where I would have bought pitted sour cherries, and I cannot imagine that I would have pitted them myself!

 

[stamasd]

That's OK I'm glad to give it away if someone else will enjoy it.

Here's how it goes. You need sour cherries (it doesn't work well with regular cherries, you need the tartness), pitted should be OK but you get extra flavor from unpitted ones. The other things that you need are: sugar, Everclear or other types of high-proof grain alcohol, and an appropriate jar. Vodka doesn't work, it doesn't have a high enough ABV.

For each 1 part of cherries (by volume) you use 0.5 parts sugar. You also need a jar, preferably glass, that will hold double the initial volume of the cherries. Say for 1 gallon of cherries you will use 0.5 gallons sugar and you need a 2-gallon jar. Adjust according to your amounts.
You can try to do it in a carboy but I recommend against it. Plopping down the carboy neck several pounds of cherries one by one isn't fun. Not to mention getting them out at the end. So use a wide mouth jar.

Start by placing layers of cherries and sugar. Start with 1 inch of cherries, then 0.5 inches sugar, 1 inch cherries etc. Last layer on top is sugar.
Cover the jar with a piece of cheesecloth folded in 2 or 3 and attach it tightly with a rubber band. The purpose is to allow the jar to be aerated, but prevent insects from going in. Because they'll be attracted to this like, well, flies by a honeypot.
Put the jar in a warm place, preferably next to a window facing south so it's in sunlight most of the day. Give it a good shake twice a day (no splashing please). After a day or two you'll notice that the sugar draws liquid out of the cherries and starts dissolving in it. After 10-14 days all of the sugar will be dissolved, the liquid will cover the cherries all the way to the top and you'll notice that the aroma changes, with a hint of alcohol. There will be a bit of fermentation going on due to wild yeasts, but not enough to make this an alcoholic drink (the syrup is too *hyperosmolar* for regular fermentation). Once this happens, estimate the amount of liquid present (it will be less than the combined volume of starting cherries and sugar because initially there was air between the fruit and between the sugar crystals) and add half as much Everclear or other 98% ABV alcohol. You can't use vodka because you want to raise the drink's ABV to at least 30% and vodka is only 40%.
Next put a tight lid on, shake it well and put in a cool dark place for a few weeks. Enjoy responsibly. Best use is as an aperitif in small shot glasses. Don't remove all of the liqueur from the jar at once, the more you leave it with the cherries the better it gets. Also when you're done drinking all of it don't throw away the cherries, they make a superb pie filling. Don't forget to remove the pits before you use them in pies.

 

[The Knize]

Sounds good. I have a bottle of Everclear I was intending to use for limoncello, but lemons seem expensive these days, and the amount of zesting required seemed like a lot of work.