A brief tale of a girl and some tiny cherries…
My Auntie Cookie and Uncle Lee lived on a working farm in Buffalo, Minnesota for many years. They had livestock, chickens, and apple trees. But what I remember most are their amazing Bush Cherries. Every other year, the bush cherries would be so bountiful, you could harvest bushels and bushels of tiny, tart little cherries.
One season, when Farmer Mars and I were first married, I was called out to Auntie Cookie’s farm for a bush cherry harvest extravaganza. I came home with two 5 gallon pails full to the brim of tiny little cherries, determined to channel my inner Pioneer Woman and make some bush cherry jelly. I gently washed all the little cherries and began to consider how in the world I was going to get the pits out of all those tiny cherries. There were billions of cherries! This was going to take forever. In the end, my mom came to the rescue and brought me a conical strainer and wooden pestle. It took FOREVER to mash all those little buggers. The reward was sweet as I ended up making the yummiest, clearest, tastiest bush cherry jelly in the entire world. Forgive the quality of the pic as this was taken about seven thousand years ago!
Flash forward a few years…
While I continued to make the occasional batch of jelly or jam over the years, I always dreaded the putzy-ness (is that a word?) of pits and seeds. It sometimes kept me from making those delicious homemade treats.
In 2008, Mr. Mars and I happily welcomed our first little sprout to the family. Our beautiful daughter, Miss J. I had a renewed interest in making and preserving fruit into fresh juices, sauces, jellies, and jams, wanting to know exactly what was going into Miss J’s tiny tummy.
While browsing on Amazon one day, I came across this INCREDIBLE tool- a steam juicer. (This is the one I have Victorio Steam Juicer)
Insert steam juicer pic here!!!
This baby is amazing! My first adventure was homemade grape juice.
I found black grapes (with seeds) on sale at Aldi. Who wants grapes with seeds? If you have a steam juicer- who cares? I cleaned those babies up and within a few hours, had several jars of perfectly purple goodness. We drank most of it (no sugar needed), and I was able to save a bit to make some grape jelly. Holy Hannah- so yummy! And SO easy!
What is the purpose of a steam juicer?
Steam Juicer Q & A
If you are serious about your preserving or just love acquiring new kitchen tools, you may just want to give a steam juicer a try. There’s truly no end to the yummy goodness that can come from it!!
