My mom likes to pick wild cherries

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Medicines I made in early May

First thing I did this morning was to collect the rain drops off of the gardenias, making a gardenia water that smells like perfume. 

Cherry bounce with wild fruit gathered in St. Landry Parish Louisiana

Perfume sprays: bee balm, baume et vinéraire, life everlasting

Dried baume in my journal

Cinnamon and clove alcohol

Lavender oil alcohol

Gardenia enfleurage oil from the gardens 

Lightening pine sap 

Clearest swamp rose hydrosol before I left for New Orleans

First Cherries

I went and picked cherries on the tree line. I saw a mockingbird in the cherry tree and we exchanged some unpleasantries. There are three cherry trees in the Sacred Heart tree lines that I know, and they are growing among fragrant cherry laurels, chasseparaille, wild grape vines, pecans, hackberry, and elderflower bushes. Today there was a light drizzle paired with the smell of bonfire out on the blue coteau. There were nettles gone to seed underfoot with no sting. I picked cherries until it started to really rain. I stored them in an empty plastic apple I got for teacher appreciation. 

I gathered there, at home and also along the Bayou Fuselier Road. I reviewed the name of wild cherry in Choctaw italikchi, doctor tree. Tomorrow I plan on checking my other trees and researching the uses of the cherry leaves, bark and root after Marius' first communion. 

Cherry Bounce Update

 In 2013 I transcribed a recipe from La Tasse Cafe radio program about a curious drink called cherry bounce:

"Cherry Bounce is a thick sweet strong liqueur that people in south Louisiana make around the holidays.  You shake the wild cherry trees (merisiers) so that the berries, called merises or choke cherries, fall onto a sheet."

From that time on I began spotting wild cherry trees in our tree lines and around town or at the camp. This was my process with many plants. Every year we would check for the cherry trees and gather from the most reliable ones considering access, height, severity of bird strike, yearly production changes or other challenges. Over the years, my knowledge of where the best producing trees are has grown. This year I have become especially good at spotting the trees and the season is long and plentiful, possibly because of the snows. I have spent the entire month of May and half of June daily checking my cherry trees and it is a fulfilling activity for me. I go to my little tree, gather enough for the day, then gauge if I have enough for another fifth, and should I stop in at Russel's for it. As I pick along the Teche, I can hear the bells of the church ring on the half hour. It's just me and the birds. My cousin Paula told me that my great grandfather also made cherry bounce. I've been making it for about ten years and never knew that, but my yearly focus on this process feels like it must be hereditary.

I have a list that I wrote of where to find the cherry trees but I may have augmented it for my own bounce security. 

Les merisiers:

2 in the garden at the house with swamp rose, pomegranate, muscadine and grape vines

1 huge one on the northbound lane of Evangeline Thruway Lafayette 1 in the eastern tree line in the front (could not locate 2025) 1 Prairie Laurent Dolla Store (big daddy) 2 on the Bayou Teche, pas loin de l'église 4 au moins à l’Academie de Sacré Cœur tree line Grand Coteau

1 at the curve in the heart of Grand Coteau 3 at the highest point of Chemin de Bayou Fuselier 2 on the Main Drag à Carencro (did not access) 2 on I-49 at exit 11 near the cypress place (trop haut, trop traffic, et dans les herbes) 2 Chicot woods island à Nonc Den

Here is the recipe I transcribed from the Mercedes Vidrine cookbook via la Tasse de Café radio Program. 

I should note that I go heavy on the cherries, good on the sugar, and I do not do the aging process with just cherries and sugar. I prefer to wash and dry the cherries, admire them, fill a bottle up 1/3 with them, cover with 1/3 sugar and fill to the top with whisky. I let that age for a month or two, shaking every week and quality control testing every few days.

All about Cherry Bounce

Cherry Bounce

 edited/transcribed from La Tasse Cafe

« Cherry Bounce is a thick sweet strong liqueur that people in south Louisiana make around the holidays.  You shake the wild cherry trees (merisiers) so that the berries, called merises or choke cherries, fall onto a sheet. You know they are ripe when they get very red, almost black on the tree. You collect them and make a cherry syrup that is mixed with alcohol to make Cherry Bounce. People say that the birds like to get a hold of the berries before people harvest them and that they make the birds act coo-coo, fly into widows, hallucinate and things, because the prussic acid in them is very toxic. The robins and the ciriers start wobbling and get "on high" comme dit bougre....or low, because they end up on the ground... »

 The Mercedes Vidrine cookbook features a Cherry Bounce recipe similar to this one:

1/4 gallon wild cherries
10 1/2 lbs of sugar
Whiskey

Place cherries (that have the stems removed and have been washed and dried) and sugar in a wide-mouth gallon jar with a good fitting lid and store for 25-30 days until the sugar has all melted and turned to syrup. The cherries will be black when the aging period is over.  

 Take an empty bottle of a fifth of whiskey and pour in some of the cherries and syrup until the bottle is 1/4 full. 

Fill the bottle with whiskey and repeat the process until you have used up all the cherries and syrup. Cover the bottles tightly and let them stand for a week before opening. 

Serve in crystal cordial glasses, or for a treat, over vanilla ice cream.