It's bottling time again!

Ever since I started my preserving journey twelve months ago I have been eagerly been anticipating the return of cherry season. I'm lucky because the prime Australian cherry growing region is around Young, which is not far away, and that means that the cherry growers come down each week for my local farmer's markets. Before I continue I should add the disclaimer that cherry season is all but over, and hence the contents of this post occurred a couple of weeks ago. But back to the cherries!

Last year I gifted some Cherries in Vanilla Vodka, which went down with such enthusiasm, that one of the recipients arrived in my house throughout the year with a new bottle of Absolut ready for more. So for this season I repeated the same successful batch, along with a new one - Brandied Cherries.

Here are my cherries looking so perfect,its like opening a box of beautiful Christmas baubles.

....and here they are after preserving in sugar, brandy and water. The recipe is from a book I highly recommend to fellow preservers - A Year in a Bottle. The liquid in the background is left over syrup which makes wonderful ice-cream topping.I think I'll give up on the water-bath method of preserving after last year's flop, and keep with boozy fruit to hold us over the cold winter months!