Thursday, July 1, 2010

Sour Cherry Jam

When I was young, we used to pick fresh sour cherries from the tree at my grandfather's house. We would then have to sit outside with my mother, grandmother and aunt to pit them. I really hated the pitting part. However, cherry jelly and cherry pie was always my favorite. So, we sat for hours and pitted the cherries. Some would be made into jelly and some would be frozen for pies.

It's difficult to find sour cherries around here and the season is very short. This past winter I found that the orchard where we purchase peaches and pears for canning, have them. So, yesterday, my "Little Helper" and I went there to see if they had any sour cherries. We were in luck, it was the last day for the cherries. I purchased 4 overflowing quarts and some of the best white sweet corn that I have had in years.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the day pitting cherries and making jam. I could not find the cherry pitter or an olive pitter anywhere. One would think that "The Italian" would have had an olive pitter in his dowry. Nope, so I used the end of a beater to the hand mixer to punch the pit through. It worked just fine. I made one batch of jam and froze the balance of the cherries for baking.


One batch of jam yielded 9 half pints.

"The Italian" has now decided that THIS is his favorite of the 14 different varieties of jams and jellies that I make. I guess that no one else will get any cherry jam. We went back to the orchard today and there were no more cherries :(


6 comments:

  1. Soooo jealous. My parents had a sour cherry tree and the pies they make have no equal. I only see them in stores every now and again, but whenever I do I buy as many as I can sneak past the wife.

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  2. I never had sour cherry jam, but sour cherry pie is my favorite. I think that I would love the jam just as much.
    It looks delicious!

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  3. Oh gosh, I have a jam fetish! I make blackberry jam and muscadine grape jelly each year, and never had the opportunity for anything from cherries. I bet it's soooooo good!

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  4. Robin, you and vrtlarica both have made jam this week and now I'm craving some homemade jam! I only found out this year about this cherry pitter device (sheltered childhood, I guess). My coworker told me she had one that's like a tray and you can pit multiple cherries at once. I keep meaning to look it up online, but haven't yet. But this post just reminded me, so I'm going to go do just that. Enjoy your jam!

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  5. Mike, It's one of those childhood memories...it's been many years since I had fresh local sour cherries :)

    MojVrt, You will have to make it...you will love it!!

    EG, That's a good fetish to have! Just wait until you see all of the jams I make :)

    thyme2garden, We had several different types of pitters when I was young. I have no idea what happened to them though. I did not find them when we cleaned out my grandfather's house a few years ago.

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  6. It looks well worth the hard work!

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