cassis

Today, I received a bunch of cassis from a friend whose friend has a cassis tree!  I believe cassis is also called black currants (blackcurrants?) in English, and "cassis" comes from French.  It seems like cassis isn't common in America, so I only knew about it in Japan.  They're very good for making jam apparently because of the high amount of pectin.  They're very tart.  

It was pretty hard work cleaning them.  I have attempted to make cassis liquor (カシス酒 kashisu-shu now try to say that 5 times fast).  I was so happy to find that they sold a jar to make fruit liquor with the appropriate alcohol measured out together.  Since I was basically winging it, I wasn't exactly sure how much liquor I would need and what a good size container would be.  The alcohol has to be at least 25% ABV I believe, but I think 35% is ideal.  I also bought rock sugar, which is good for making fruit liquor because it dissolves slower giving the fruit more of a chance to flavor the liquor...or something.  Anyway, the rest is a waiting game to see how it turns out.  I will wait at least 3 months, so until then!

drying my potatoes...