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 :(
