What to Do With a Bignay Harvest: Juice, Jam

🍷 What to Do With a Bignay Harvest: Juice, Jam & Homemade Liqueur

So your Bignay tree is suddenly covered with hundreds of red, purple and black berries.
Now what?
That's exactly what happened to me. I asked our friend Murray Corman who gave us the tree what to do with all that fruit.
His answer was short: "MAKE WINE!"
So I started researching - and experimenting.
Bignay (Antidesma bunius) has a tart flavor, abundant juice and gorgeous deep-red color, making it perfect for drinks, preserves, wine and liqueur.

🍷 Easy Bignay juice

Use fully ripe, dark berries.
Put berries in a saucepan with just enough water to prevent scorching.
Simmer until soft and juicy.
Mash lightly and strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth.
Sweeten with sugar or honey to taste.
Serve chilled over ice, dilute with sparkling water for a Bignay spritzer, or freeze the concentrate for later.

🍷 Homemade Bignay liqueur

This was my favorite experiment.
Fill a clean jar halfway with ripe berries and lightly bruise them without crushing the seeds. Cover completely with vodka or another neutral spirit.
Add ½–1 cup sugar per 2 cups of berries as a starting point. Keep the closed jar in a cool, dark place for several weeks, gently turning occasionally.
Strain and adjust sweetness if needed.
The result is a beautiful jewel-red, sweet-tart Bignay liqueur. Serve over ice, with sparkling water or in cocktails.

🍷 Bignay jam & jelly

Bignay's tart flavor and intense color are also perfect for preserves.
Cook ripe berries until soft. Mash and strain for jelly, or keep more pulp for jam. Add sugar and pectin according to your preferred recipe.
The result is a gorgeous dark-ruby preserve for toast, biscuits or soft cheese.

🍷 One tree, hundreds of experiments

Bignay can also become syrup or wine, and ripe berries can be frozen for later - handy because they don't all ripen at once.
That's what I love about unusual fruit trees.
Sometimes you plant something simply because you've never grown it before.
A couple of years later, you're standing in the kitchen with buckets of berries, making your own liqueur.

📸 In the photo: The tree that started our Bignay story!
This is the famous old Antidesma bunius at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. We took this picture in 2005. Years ago, Murray Corman collected seeds from this very tree, grew his mother plant, and our Bignay came from his - a direct descendant of this remarkable Florida tree.
🛒 Grow Your Own Bignay Harvest

📚 Learn more:
• Antidesma bunius in Plant Encyclopedia
• Bignay: the rare fruit tree that gave me more berries than I knew what to do with

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Discover

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals