Blackberry and plum cordials - testing various recipes

This summer/autumn, as always, I practiced what might be called gleaning or foraging.  I, my kids, my husband and my mother-in-law, went to various sites in Western Washington to pick free fruit and veggies.  We went to parks and abandoned lots and to friend’s orchards and gardens.  Most gardeners, like me, have a habit of planting way more of a crop than they can possibly use.  Thus, I have tomatoes to share, and others have beets or plums to share.  The copious quantities of plums and blackberries we got this year had to become something more than freezer fodder.  I froze blackberries for winter smoothies, and vacuum sealed plums for winter desserts, but the remaining fruit went into big jars sprinkled with sugar and spices and then drenched with cheap vodka or sometimes a combination of vodka and brandy.  I have decanted and strained the jars I started in August and I must say that most of them are absolutely fabulous.  I find that those with less sugar (1/3 c. per quart jar rather than 1 1/2 c.) are much better.  They actually have the taste of the fruit, whereas the sweeter ones tend to taste mostly like sweet syrup.  This year I was organized enough to keep close track of my recipes.  My family and friends will be graced with these bottles of ambrosia as holiday gifts.

I also made pear liquer, which I may post later.  I grew pears in bottles on our tree by wiring the bottles over baby pears and then letting them grow inside the bottles.  Then I washed the “schmutz” out of the bottle and poured in “Everclear”  which I got in Oregon.  No bad bugs will ever grow in there and eventually the pear flavor will infuse the Everclear.  I know beacuse I have a bottle of this concotion that I made many years ago.  I remember wiring the bottle to the tree with my daughter in a baby backpack behind me …. she is now 20 years old!