Lemonsusu Syrup

One of my favorite fruits from Plateau State is the lemonsusu, also known as the pitanga cherry. I just happened to see some in the market a few days ago so I bought two mudus (about 10 cups) of cherries. This morning we decided to make them into syrup.

Literally translated, 'lemonsusu' means "orange for birds."

First the kids and I picked through the cherries to remove any bad ones.

Then we washed them and put them on the stove to boil. Tobi mashed them down so their juice would come out.
Esther got all the juice out with the Foley food mill. I would not have minded having the pulp, but there are about 3 little nut-like seeds in every cherry.
Then I added sugar and cornstarch and boiled the juice. It makes a truly delicious syrup.
The kids removed the seeds from the rejected cherries. Bayo loves to grow anything he can. It was a little messy, but at least we got some seeds for Daddy!

It took us awhile to make breakfast this morning, but it sure was worth it!