Sweet Cherry Jam

What do you do when 20 pounds of sweet cherries is delivered to your door? If you are me, you jump for joy!

And then you make cherry jam!

{Keeping little hands (and big ones) out of the bowl was a challenge! }

First we washed and pitted all the cherries. I picked that cherry pitter up for about $6 and it turned out to be quite a handy gadget!

I had some great helpers as usual! :-)

{I got some great pics of Eliana's cherry face, you can see them here!}

I used Pomona's Universal Pectin to make this jam using honey. I used 1/2 cup honey per 4 cups of cherries. I used the blender to make it smooth. Cooked it on the stove, added the honey to the cherries. I use raw unspun local honey, so it is a solid at room temperature, therefore I could not follow the recipe and add the pectin to the honey. During the first batch I tried to heat the honey so I could add the pectin, but it would not dissolve. The 2nd batch worked great using a small (about 1/4 cup) of sugar so that it would easily dissolve. I also added a few tablespoons of lemon juice. And processed for 12 minutes.



I ended up with 12 half pint jars and 2 pint jars (after giving one away). I pay about $3 a jar for organic all fruit jam, so I was very happy to save money by making my own! We also ate a huge bowl and I still have a bag of pitted cherries waiting for a cherry crumb pie, that I hope to make very soon!