Black Cherry Bourbon

Leave it to Marie Viljoen to inspire us to forage more.  That gal is always thinking ahead.  Last summer she gathered this gorgeous bounty of fruit, which she turned into the black cherry bourbon she now uses to mix cocktails in the dead of winter. She writes, “I did not know, when I screwed the lid on summer, that I was performing an act of Americana. I learned later that the instructions for making a cordial called Cherry Bounce were found in a note, written in an unidentified hand, in a diary belonging to Martha Washington (what was it with that family and cherries?). It prescribes cinnamon, and more sugar than I use, but otherwise my 2012 infusion is pretty much the tipple sipped by George on his quixotic trek west to unite the coasts by way of the Potomac River, in 1784.” Read the full story here in our current issue.