North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["del stubbs" <pinewoodel@hotmail.com>]

I make lots of very
> good fruit juices by this method that I learned from an Amish friend:
> Put a large handful of fruit (chokecherries, wild or tame grapes,
> elderberries, or just about any berry or well-crushed bulky fruit) in a
> quart Mason jar, add a good squirt of lemon juice (unless the fruit is 
> quite
> acid), a tablespoon of honey or sugar, and then fil the jar with boiling
> water. IMMEDIATELY screw on the lid. Set the jars away on a shelf in a dark
> place in the cellar. Keeps for many years. I have never lost a jar to
> spoilage or fermentation.
> Bill

Just this morn I was talking to a neighbor who learned a similar method from 
one of our menonite neighbors....the difference is that the jars were then 
water bath canned. To skip that step would be great, I am suprised so little 
added sweet is enough to preserve without canning. My wife mentions folk who 
use the above method with pickles, but with mixed success, she feels the 
canning process is an important safeguard.

I am most curious how oak shavings could help something as astringent as 
chokecherries, ever tried tasting oak sawdust? It isn't exactly  like sugar, 
must be some chemical reaction.

"wine is wine, vinegar is vinegar"  My wife doesn't believe it, I'll ride 
the fence in ignorance.....but we both remember hearing that a fruit fly in 
a wine bottle can make wine into vinegar.....and we have a bottle of   'red 
wine vinegar'..?
thanks for all the chokecherry imput,
Del

Del Stubbs  www.pinewoodforge.com  ag zone2/3


_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com