Sour Cherry Jam
Two out of our four cherry trees were absolutely loaded with stunning cherries, just begging to be picked. Sure, I might have snatched a few a tad prematurely, but with a flock of birds eyeing the bounty, I thought it wise to grab as many pink or red cherries as I could before they staged a feathery heist. By the end, I managed to fill about two-thirds of a bucket, which translated to roughly 3.5 pounds after I played the cherry surgeon and removed the pits.
Come winter, I decided to upgrade my cherry-pitting game and snagged a shiny new cherry pitter. This one has a handy bowl that holds multiple cherries, feeding them down for a quick pit removal. What a breeze compared to the old method of manually inserting each cherry! It truly turbocharged my pitting adventure. If you’re in the market for a cherry pitter, I’d totally recommend something like this — unless you enjoy the thrill of a slow pit removal, of course!
Last year I whipped up some cherry pie filling from my harvest. This time around, I decided to experiment with a jam recipe. I stumbled upon a delightful one on PracticalSelfReliance.com that caught my eye. It turned out to be a breeze to make and absolutely delicious. It’ll be a great addition on toast!
Cherry Pitter Affiliate Link – Here
Sour Cherry Jam
Equipment
- Cherry Pitter
- Water Bath Canner
- 6 Ball Regular Mouth Canning Jar 8 oz.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs Sour Cherries
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 cups sugar
Instructions
- Pit fresh 3 lbs sour cherries. If working with pitted fruit, the total weight should be about 2 1/2 lbs pitted, or roughly 5 cups pitted fruit.
- Place the fruit in a heavy-bottomed jam pot along with lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Cook the cherry mixture, stirring continuously to avoid boil-overs, for about 20 minutes until the fruit has completely fallen apart.
- Add sugar. (If adding pectin, now is the time, see notes).
- Continue cooking the jam until it reaches gel stage, about 25 to 30 more minutes.
- Test for gel stage on a plate that's been placed in the freezer, or with an instant-read thermometer (220 degrees F at sea level).
- Turn off heat and ladle jam into prepared jars. De-bubble, wipe rims and adjust headspace to 1/4 inch. Store in the refrigerator for immediate use (within 1 month), or process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes for a shelf-stable jam.
