Rumtopf Recipe

Let the Rumtopf begin!
Do you love summer fruits and berries? Miss them when they're gone? Looking for something new for homemade holiday gifts this year? Oh boy, have I got a recipe for you!

• Fruit (strawberries, raspberries, peaches, pears, etc)
• Brown sugar *
  
• Rum

Weigh the fruit, and add an equal weight of sugar (demerara)*. Mix in a bowl, and let sit for about an hour, to saturate the fruit with sugar. Place in the crock. Cover with rum, by more than an inch. Seal with plastic wrap, and cover. Place in a cool dark spot.

As each fruit comes into season, mix it first with half its weight in sugar*, then add to the crock with more rum, if needed, to cover. Stir occasionally. Leave in a cool dark place, at least a month, or until holiday season (which holiday, depends on you! Try for Hallowe'en at least!) Fruits may discolour, especially if using both light and dark fruits.

In the end, it's a powerful, dark, fabulous sauce or liqueur, over ice cream, cheesecake, or angel cake. The strained liquid is great mixed with ginger ale or (wow) champagne!

We're lucky, living near a ravine and a big wood, so we're going to work mostly with wild berries this year. We've started with salmon berries, in all shades of red, orange and yellow. Now, the huckleberries, and soon blackberries. All free for the picking, here in North and West Vancouver. We'll add some peaches or pears from farmers' markets. The combination provides a lovely mix, although I'm pretty sure the blackberries will dominate the colour.

Presented in a small glass jar, this will make a pretty holiday gift. Like the best gifts, it combines a little ingenuity, a little effort and very little expense. Happy Rumtopfing!

*weight of sugar = equal to weight of first fruit used, then
= half the weight of later fruits added.