We recently lucked out with a major score of fresh Okanagan cherries. Normally I visit Penticton and the surrounding area mid-way through the summer, in perfect time for the middle of cherry season. I can never resist picking up a flat of cherries (and peaches, and apricots, and … well, you have already heard of my love of fruit) on the way home. Most often I stop at Bear’s fruit stand in Keremeos, a town that I’m sure solely exists in most people’s minds as a cluster of fruit stands marking the “almost in Penticton” point on the Crow’s Nest highway. Other times I’ve delighted in buying flats of cherries from directly from the farm, one time from a retired, bespectacled couple who looked straight out of 1965, sitting together under a beach umbrella on the lawn of their house and cherry grove.

But this year plans for the Okanagan fit our schedules best at the end of August. Surely in time for peaches, plums and early apples and pears, but not cherries. At the suggestion of folks and with the assistance of the good old Internet, I was able to find a lady selling flats of cherries on Craigslist. They were a song, compared to the cost of cherries at local markets, and they were even delivered to my door. Perfectly firm and ripe, all 20 pounds of them. For future reference, 10 pounds would have sufficed.

I had really just wanted to make some cocktail cherries for manhattans and make a few jars of canned cherries, but my newfound surplus got me thinking. Cherry everything seemed about right given the quantity on-hand so, slowly at first, we stemmed them all, pitted some, chopped many. And what we ended up with was cherries in light syrup, spiced cocktail cherries, cherry jam, cherry-infused bourbon and cherry vodka. The good thing about all of these recipes is that although they take a bit of prep work they’re virtually dead simple.

Infusing liquor is really as simple as fruit + vodka + wait. The bourbon version I made is still mingling on the shelf, and we are eager to try it. I made a vodka version as well, which was ready after a week and suggested that I fill the whole jar with cherries before filling with vodka. I’d probably just repeat it the same way as the bourbon version, because once you start drinking the vodka you have way too many boozy cherries. Maybe I should make an adult cake… Or next year I’ll try the cherry pit vodka from Everybody Likes Sandwiches to deal with my surplus pits. Canned cherries are basically simple syrup plus cherries (you don’t even have to pit them, hallelujah!) and then processing. I used a light syrup at a 4 cups of water : 1 cup of sugar ratio. As far as the cherry jam goes, to be honest I was tired of cherries at this point but for the sake of preserving the summetime I used the basic Certo recipe. It works well, no fuss, no muss. Tastes great warmed and used on ice cream. Cocktail cherries were easy too. The recipes I reviewed online (particularly this one) recommended reflecting the flavours of the drink you plan to use the cherries in. I had Manhattans on the mind, so used a demerara sugar simple syrup with cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Now, I think I deserve a Manhattan after all that work, don’t you? Or maybe a nice Old Fashioned. Heck, let’s have No Bake Cherry Cheesecake while we’re at it.