A journey begins

I've been hanging out to start my rumpot (p238) for months, but I had to wait until the first summer fruit came into season. Since today is the first day of summer, I decided it was the perfect time to get started.

A rumpot is basically a jarful of fruit soaked in rum and sugar. It's going to take me all summer, since I'm starting with strawberries and adding various other fruits as they come into season.

The first thing to do was find a suitable jar. The recipe recommends an opaque container, as light spoils the colour of the fruit. I found a ceramic jar of appropriate size in a local op shop - it didn't have a lid, but I thought, "I'll just get a cork for it". Easy, right? Wrong!

Corks are very difficult to find, and (apparently) impossible to get in the size I wanted. After much searching, I found I'd have to come up with an alternative. After considering various possibilities, I finally decided it would be easiest just to cover the top of the jar with plastic.

The first fruit to go into the rumpot is strawberries. I popped into Raeward on the way home and got a couple of punnets. I wasn't going to use all of these, but I had to have perfect ones, and - no matter how hard I looked for good punnets - there are always several with slight blemishes. I sorted through both punnets when I got home, and only just had enough 'perfect' ones for the approximate 100g I wanted.

Washed and hulled, the strawberries went into my rumpot. Over this was sprinkled quite a bit of sugar - 50g sugar to 100g fruit (as per my invariable habit, I'm making a half recipe) and then I added enough rum to cover the strawberries by about 1cm. Well, that was the idea, but I've just discovered that strawberries float! I think I got about the right amount in there though.

After that, it was just a matter of coming up with some kind of lid for the jar. I put a layer of plastic wrap on first, to give it a reasonable seal. Then, with the aim of keeping the light out of the pot, I added three layers of plastic, cut out of a Pak N Save bag. With any luck, that should do the job.

Over the next few months, I'll be opening up my rumpot from time to time, and adding further layers of fruit. I will of course keep you updated as the rumpot progresses. I find the whole process quite exciting, so I hope it turns out alright in the end!






Click here or here to see further additions to the rumpot