Get ready for a bountiful stone-fruit season

There was an upside to those harsh days of February and March. Fruit trees respond to a cold winter and a long, slow spring with enthusiastic blossoming and fruiting. By early April, Mid-Atlantic orchardists already were hinting at a great harvest.

That means you'll start to see cherries, apricots, and peaches appearing in the market any day now, abundant and just plain beautiful. Stone fruits make delicious jams, sensational pie fillings, sweet and spicy chutneys, and complex salsas. It's their season, and what a season it is.

All cherries have a firm, edible, and delicious skin (which is why dried cherries are so intensely flavored). Cherries are sweet or tart. The sweet types range from the deep-purplish Bing to the yellow-rose Rainier; they all make spectacular salsas and chutneys and are terrific eaten out of hand. The tart cherries - Montmorency is a common variety - make wonderful jams and pie fillings, too. Tart cherries, also known as pie cherries, are very tender and do not ship or hold, so they are seldom seen in grocery stores and are more readily available at farmers' markets and orchards.

The chore of pitting cherries is not for the fainthearted. Don't wear your favorite T-shirt. Place a few layers of newspaper over the table and enlist help. Cherry-pitting tools are useful, but no less messy than using a paper clip, my preferred implement.

After making pies and jam, salsas and chutneys, I find there are always enough cherries remaining to mix up Martha Washington's recipe for the first president's favorite tipple. Cherry bounce is a potent combination of cherries, sugar, and booze. George might have preferred brandy as the spirited ingredient, but bourbon is what you'll find in mine.

Wondering about the name? David Wondrich, author of Imbibe!, says, "In 18th-century dictionaries, one of the meanings of bounce is a sharp blow, and there's evidence that, in this case, it's being used much as we might say shot."

Apricot varieties can be tart or sweet. Their skins might be smooth or a little fuzzy. For jam-making, slightly underripe fruit retains its shape when cooked, resulting in chunky preserves. Some apricots, particularly those with fragile, tender skin, simply dissolve into a smooth butter. Either is delicious on a biscuit. Or try a savory approach by adding mustard and fresh herbs to a sauce that complements pork or chicken.

Texas and Georgia are known for their peaches, but the Mid-Atlantic also has bragging rights for the fruit: yellow or white, doughnut or classic in shape. The Mid-Atlantic peach season is long and generous, starting with cling (clinging to the pit) and ending with freestone. I count on the former for jams and the latter for whole or sliced peaches in syrup or fresh peachsicles.

The frozen, sugared peach slices I put up capture the essence of biting into the juicy fruit, a summer highlight that can be enjoyed in wintry, peach-free months. Use freestone peaches for pretty slices, and slide them onto a skewer for easy storing and snacking. But don't miss the chance to pile those slices into a pie crust, as well.

There are other stone fruits that deserve attention, but only some of them work well for preserving. Doughnut peaches are best for snacking. (The skin-to-fruit ratio and required peeling yields too little fruit for the effort.) Don't ignore the nectarine; blessed with tender skin and tart, flavorful flesh in both yellow and white varieties, it offers all the benefits of the peach without the necessary peeling. Substitute nectarines in any of the accompanying recipes.

For the most part, early-season plums are too watery for successful preserving. Eat those out of hand. Late-season Damson, Quetsch, and other deep-purple, ovoid plums are perfect for jams, infusions (like slivovitz), and sauces. The aprium and other plum hybrids tend to share the high water content of their plum parentage and are less functional in the preserving kitchen. They are perfect in tarts and crumbles, so bake away.

Whatever fruit you decide to preserve, always sample it before you buy it in quantity. Mushy, mealy fruit makes mushy, mealy preserves.

Stone-fruit season provides a perfect opportunity to work your DIY preserving chops. After all, those bitter-cold days are not as far off as you think.

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Makes four 8-ounce jars

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3 pounds apricots, pitted and quartered (about 4 cups)

3 cups sugar

Juice of 1 large lemon

1 Granny Smith or green apple

6 sprigs lemon verbena (optional)

1/4 cup (2 ounces) elderflower syrup

or St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur

1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter

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1. Stir together the apricots, sugar, and lemon juice in a nonreactive bowl. Grate the unpeeled apple on the large-hole side of a box grater, discarding the core. Add the lemon verbena, if using. Stir well, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and

up to 2 days.

2. Place a colander over a heavy, 5-quart nonreactive pot. Strain the macerated fruit, capturing the syrup in the pot. Transfer the colander to a bowl to continue to capture the syrup. Clip a candy thermometer to the pot, and, over high heat, bring the syrup to 220 degrees.

3. Add the strained fruit and any accumulated syrup to the pot. Cook (over high heat) for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring constantly. The mixture will foam up, meaning the moisture content is evaporating.

4. Once the foam is almost gone, discard the lemon verbena, as needed. Add the elderflower syrup or liqueur, if using, and return the mixture to a full boil. Add the butter, stirring until the jam is foam-free.

5. Turn off the heat and check the set. If it is too loose, return the jam to the stove, and continue cooking at a strong boil, removing it from the heat and checking the set every 2 or 3 minutes. Keep in mind that the jam will set up further as it cools.

6. When ready, ladle the jam into the clean jars, leaving a 1/2-inch head space. Run a plastic knife around the inside of the jar to remove any air bubbles. (If the jam is very thick, be especially diligent.) Place the clean lid, and tighten the ring just until secure.

7. Process in a boiling-water bath (pot) for 10 minutes, starting the timing from the moment the water returns to a boil (see note). Remove the jars from the water bath, setting them upright on a folded towel. Let the jars cool naturally for several hours before testing the seal by removing the ring and lifting the jar by the lid. If the seal does not hold, refrigerate the jam, and consume it within 1 month.

8. Sealed and kept in a cool, dark spot, the jam is shelf-stable for 1 year. Its color might darken over time, but the flavor will remain.

9. Variations: For peach jam, blanch and peel 4 cups of peaches, chop them into small pieces, and stir in the sugar and lemon quickly to retain the color as the fruit macerates. For cherry jam, the most familiar taste comes from using tart, or pie, cherries, but sweet cherries will work. Pit and halve 4 cups of cherries, and add 2 apples. Cherries have no natural pectin to speak of and are a tricky fruit to set. Don't get discouraged if you get a loose set; spoon runny cherry jam over chocolate ice cream and call yourself a Black Forest genius.

Note: Water-bath canning safely seals high-acid, low-pH foods in jars. The time for processing in the water bath is calculated based on the size of the jar and the consistency and density of the food. For safety's sake, do not alter the jar size, ingredients, ratios, or processing time in any canning recipe. If moved to change any of those factors, simply put the prepared food in the refrigerator and eat it within a week.

Per two-tablespoon serving: 100 calories, no protein, 25 grams carbohydrates, 24 grams sugar, no fat, no cholesterol,

no sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.EndText

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Makes 6 servings

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Juice of 2 large lemons

6 large freestone peaches, slightly underripe and unblemished

1/2 cup sugar

6 bamboo skewers (8-inches long)

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1. Fill a medium bowl with cold water, and add the lemon juice.

2. Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Score an "X" in the bottom of each piece of fruit. Carefully drop the pieces into the water, and cook for a few minutes, just to loosen the skins. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to a cutting board. Peel off and discard the skins. Cut the fruit in half along the seam (from top to bottom), discard the pit, then cut each half in half, dropping the slices into the acidulated water as you work.

3. Line one baking sheet with paper towels and a second one with parchment paper. Place the sugar in a small bowl.

4. Lift the fruit pieces out of the water with a slotted spoon, briefly draining them on the paper towels. Coat the fruit pieces in the sugar, placing them on the parchment-lined baking sheet as you work. Slide a bamboo skewer into four slices, keeping the slices from touching. Discard the lemon water.

5. Freeze until firm, about 4 hours, then transfer to a freezer-safe zip-top bag or container. Freeze for up to 9 months.

6. Variations: For fresh apricotsicles, leave the skins on. Use 6-inch bamboo skewers. For fresh cherrysicles, use only sweet cherries that have been halved and pitted. (In both cases, the sugar will stick to the cut sides of the fruit.)

Note: Use slightly underripe, firm fruit for the best results, otherwise, the cut edges of the peaches will be "fuzzy," which is not good for these peachsicles.

Skewers provide a fun way to serve the fruit. If you're using them, you'll need six 8-inch bamboo ones.

Make Ahead: The fruit needs to freeze for at least 4 hours and up to 9 months.

Per serving: 70 calories, 2 grams protein, 17 grams carbohydrates, 15 grams sugar, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium, 3 grams dietary fiber.

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Makes 16 servings

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1 pound cherries, stemmed (see note)

23/4 cups sugar

4 cups vodka, rum, cognac, bourbon, rye, or grain alcohol (see note)

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1. Pierce each cherry with the tip of a knife in one or two places.

2. Combine the sugar and 1 cup of the liquor in the half-gallon jar. Shake well to dissolve the sugar as much as possible. Add the fruit and shake again, then top with the remaining 3 cups of liquor. Shake gently to distribute the fruit.

3. Place the jar in a sunny indoor spot; let it sit for 1 week, then transfer it to a dark spot, and let it sit for 40 days. The color of the bounce will darken and intensify.

4. Seat a strainer over a pitcher or a container with a pour spout. Strain the cherry mixture. Reserve or discard the fruit (see headnote). Cover the strained liquor, and let it settle for a few hours. Then pour the bounce into a clean 1-quart jar. Do not include any sediment. The boozy-fruit byproduct can be reserved to serve over pound cake or ice cream.

5. Variations: To make an apricot bounce, use cognac or vodka; bourbon is too strong for the fruit, which can be sweet or tart. Add a dozen sprigs of fresh thyme. Chop the unpeeled apricots into chunks, discarding the pits, before infusing. To make peach bounce, choose bourbon - not rum. Add a dozen coin-size slices of fresh ginger root. Peel and chop the peaches before infusing. Stored at a moderate, even temperature, the bounce will keep indefinitely.

Fruit note: This method works for just about any fruit, herb, or vegetable, but cherry bounce has the benefit of historical significance, as it was one of George Washington's favorite tipples. Depending on the type of cherry you use, the flavor ranges from dessert-worthy sweet (Bing) to tart and refreshing (sour/tart varieties). You'll need a half-gallon jar and a clean 1-quart jar.

Booze note: Alter the liquor base to fit your taste. Vodka keeps the cherry flavor very true; rum adds sweetness and tropical touch; cognac creates the taste of an intense cherry wine; bourbon or rye makes a smoky and fruity bounce.

Per serving: 260 calories, no protein, 34 grams carbohydrates, 34 grams sugar, no fat, no cholesterol, 0 mg sodium, no dietary fiber.

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