Some of my favorite moments revolve around food, whether it’s a meal shared with a loved one, a slow Sunday spent simmering a stew, or those surprising bursts of new flavors while traveling. Food is deeply tied to me cultural identity and I love weaving food traditions into my world-building and characters.
Take Marisha, the main character in my debut novel, House of Frost and Feathers. She sweetens her tea with a spoonful or two of sour cherry preserves, a detail inspired by my memories of doing the same during a homestay in Russia. The taste stuck with me all these years. You can use other jams to sweeten your tea, like raspberry or strawberry. But sour cherries with their tart and mellow flavor floating in a sweet syrup is perfect for spooning into tea. I found that storebought sour cherry jams were too sweet for my taste and I reduced the amount of sugar to fruit ratio from 1:1 to 1:2.
If you can get your hands on sour cherries in the summer, I hope you give this a try. I made a small batch—500 g pitted fruit, enough to fill a large jar. It’s like sunshine in a jar, and would be lovely to savor on cold winter days—that is, if you can make it last that long!
✨🍒 Marisha’s Sour Cherry Preserves Recipe 🍒✨
- Remove the stems and pits. No need to get fancy, its fun to depit these cherries by hand.
- Simmer the cherries in a closed saucepan on medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Add sugar (2 parts fruit to 1 part sugar) and the juice from half a lemon.
- Cook on medium-high until it thickens—you can test by spooning a little onto a cold plate to see if it sets.
- Once you’re happy with the consistency, ladle it into a jar. If you’ve made enough, you can try canning.
Enjoy!
