North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

The early European settlers in Ontario (and I imagine elsewhere) used to 
fill jars part way with Prunus serotina cherries and top off with cheap 
rum (because that was what they could afford) then close and leave it as 
long as their willpower held out before drinking. They were sometimes 
called "rum cherries" for that reason.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



On 27/11/2010 8:34 AM, Ginda Fisher wrote:
> One you didn't ask about is Prunus Serotina, or the American black
> cherry, better known as a source of furniture wood. I used to live near
> a couple of mature black cherries in Princeton NJ. The fruit is just a
> thin layer over a pit that's about the same size as the pit of a Bing
> cherry, so I have no idea how you could process it, but I used to eat
> them every season. I'd just pick up a handful from the ground, suck off
> the pulp and spit out the pit. They are a little bitter, but have a
> strong and pleasant cheery flavor, and I was very fond of them. I wish I
> could find jam or juice or something made from them, but cherry products
> labeled "black cherry" are made from sweet black cherries, not from the
> species "black cherry".
>
> Ginda