I had grand plans for sour cherries this year. I knew that the sweet cherry crop had been bad, so when Mood’s Farm Market opened their u-pick sour cherry picking, I went the second day of the season. My thinking was that if I got there early, I’d get enough cherries to keep my in jam and pie-filling for the year. However, when I walked into the farmstand and asked to pick sour cherries, the 15 year old behind the counter just shook her and said, “you’re not going to find much.”
I told her I’d just do my best, and she shrugged her shoulders at me and wrote out the picking permit. As soon as I pulled up to the orchard, I could see she hadn’t been joking. In just over 24 hours, the sour cherry orchard had been picked nearly clean. Grabbing my bucket and step ladder, I began to wander, hoping I’d find a few pockets of cherries left.
I spent a bit over an hour out in the orchard, gazing at trees with an upturned head. I went up and down that step ladder at least 100 times, each time repositioning it to grab a bit more fruit. It was hard work, and yet it was also wonderful. All the stretching and bending, it felt like the most productive and delicious yoga I’d ever done.
I went home that night with scant four pounds of cherries, which rapidly became three pints of jam. However a lucky thing happened as I was making the jam. I happened to broadcast my disappointment with the slim haul on Twitter. Some friends saw it and invited me to pick some cherries from the trees in their community garden, which happened to be dripping with fruit. With Angie’s help, I found myself with ten more pounds. Jams and pie filling galore!
It might sound like I went to an awful lot of trouble for some sour cherries, but if you’ve tasted jams or baked goods made with little gems, you’ll know that the effort was well worth it. The flavor is bright, tangy (not sour exactly, just perfectly piquant) and, when combined with a bit of sugar, quite heavenly. I’ve been eating the jam stirred into plan yogurt (you might have picked up on the fact that yogurt is one of my favorite vehicles for jam) and I have six pitted pounds in the freezer, waiting to become pie filling at some later date – I plan on using this recipe as my starting place.
Now, time is beginning to run out on sour cherries, but you can still get them if you look carefully. Here in Philly, Beechwood Orchards still has them (at least they did today at the Rittenhouse Market) and from what I hear, more northernly climates are just getting them in. Sometimes you can even get them frozen, which, if you’ve got a sour cherry tooth like I do, isn’t such a bad way to go.
I do believe that it’s time to offer up another giveaway. This time, I only have a four ounce jar on offer (I’m telling you, this stuff is precious to me), but it should be enough to firmly plant the flavor in your taste brain and make you jones for more. Leave a comment by Friday, July 10 at 5 p.m. if you want a chance to win. One entry per person, winner will be selected via the random number generator.
And on to the recipe…
Ingredients
- 4 pounds of pitted and mashed sour cherries, which should yield about six cups of jammable fruit
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 packet liquid pectin (that's half a box)
Instructions
- Put three pint jars or six half pints (or some combintion thereof) in your canning pot and bring to a boil.
- Combine fruit and sugar in a heavy, non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil and let bubble for a good twenty minutes, occasionally skimming the foam from the surface of the fruit as it develops. Add the pectin and boil for another five minutes. You want to cook it until it looks like boiling sugar - thick and viscous.
- Kill the heat, fill your jars, wipe rims, apply the lids and rings and process in the hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars from water and let cool on the countertop. When the jars are cool (I typically wait until overnight), remove the rings and test the seal by picking the jar up by the lid. If it stays put, your jars are good to store indefinitely.
- I love the flavor of sour cherries, so I didn't add a drop of extra flavor to this jam. However, you are welcome to spice things up with cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla or orange (or anything else).
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Yogurt is just about my favorite vehicle for jam as well—especially anything with some chunk to it. One of my favorites is the Meyer lemon-vanilla bean marmalade I make. Love getting little bites of the peel.
But I’ve never, ever had sour cherry jam…:-)
Oh god, Meyer lemon-vanilla bean marmalade sounds like the best thing ever! -Marisa
I bet this tastes amazing! Would love to have some right about now…
Evan, it’s pretty darn amazing. -Marisa
this looks amazing. do you think rainier cherries would work just as well?
Lauren, you can make jam with Rainier cherries, but it won’t be quite the same as this. In my experience, it’s hard to get sweet cherries to set well into jam. However, it always ends up tasting good, so it’s still worth making. -Marisa
Oh yes, please put me in the running for the jam giveaway!
I assume you have some kind of device to pit the cherries, right?? I did some by hand today and was thinking that this was one of those rare times that a really specific gadget wouldn’t seem so crazy…
I do, indeed, have a cherry pitter. It’s a hand-held, one cherry at a time device, but it works just fine. I actually find the time spent pitting cherries quite meditative and relaxing. -Marisa
Will you send the jar to Oregon??
I have cherries in the freezer waiting to become crisp at a later date. YUM!
Sara, if you win, I would be delighted to send the jar to Oregon! -Marisa
Yum – sounds delicious!
seadragon – a cherry pitter or two (it’s nice to have company when you’re pitting a lot of cherries) make baking or canning with cherries MUCH more enjoyable. My two cents: it’s a worthwhile purchase.
Marisa, I totally agree. While cherry pitters don’t get used too often, they are definitely worth the money you spend on them. -Marisa
I wish that I could find sour cherries here;all I could find were sweet cherries, but I made pies anyway. A cherry pitter is a must. I may have to try making some jam since this sounds so delicious.
Wes, make jam! You might try scouring the frozen fruit section of some grocery stores, once in a while, you’ll come across frozen sour cherries. Once defrosted, they make good jam. -Marisa
Wow, I’ve never had sour cherry jam. Now I am going to have to keep a lookout for a jar, it sounds fabulous. I also have only had sweet cherries. Mmmmm.
This sounds incredible. I recently had a strawberry – sour cherry jam that was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted… Thanks for the recipe.
Hurrah for sour cherries. I’m south of you and missed the season this year, though.
Behold the immense power of Twitter, magically transforming 4# in enought to satiate Marisa’s sour cherry yearnings!
Count me in for jar giveaway !
I love sour cherries sweetened and cooked til they are jammy…..and delicious! Great job, M!
My favorite vehicle for jam is popovers!
Me, Me, Me! I feel as excited as Tigger at the thought of sour cherry jam!
mmm…sour cherries. i’m fairly sure we won’t find those fresh here in texas, especially in this heat!
will have to settle for bings. i suppose i’ll need to cut the sugar. thanks!
That looks divine. I love sour cherries but have never had them in jam. Mmmm, jam.
sounds yummy….I add a plop of jam to my oatmeal, but my boys like pb&j oatmeal!….I’m in TX as well and we never see fresh sour cherries…but we have great peaches!!!
If I don’t win can I interest you in a trade for a sweet cheery jam? or a cherry blueberry jam?
I have been enjoying your site since I found you last month – I am finally making time to can again. I’ve done a series of no-sugar jams for my diabetic MIL this spring as the fruit has presented itself here in Oklahoma (more peaches from market this Saturday!!!), and I’ve made some awesome pickles. The sour cherries intrigue me, and so a comment, so that I might win them!
Hugs, Aubrey
I pitted twenty pounds of sour cherries last weekend using the end of a large paperclip. It worked wonderfully quick! I have a hand-held pitter gadget for sweet cherries, which have a firmer texture, but soft pie cherries like those pictured are “ripe” for the paperclip technique. Yay cherries!
I just signed up for your tomato class at Philly Kitchen Share. Very excited for that! This jam also looks lovely, and I bet it tastes great on ice cream.
My daily bowl of hot cereal is my jam vehicle of choice (though a slice of toast with jam on the weekends is not something I turn down). I don’t know that I’ve ever seen sour cherries down here in southern California. Perhaps I’m not looking in the right places?
If you have any cherries left you should make cold sour cherry soup. I lived in Hungary one summer and I probably had it twice a week. Here’s a recipe: http://www.fsz.bme.hu/hungary/cuisine/foods/meggy_soup.html
And here’s the wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideg_meggyleves
cherry jam always reminds me of my great aunt’s–it was such a treat to get hers. it helped me to fall in love with cherries!
I’ll trade you pineapple-lemon for a jar!!!!
I scheduled months ahead to go out last weekend for sour cherry picking only to (cleverly) call up the Friday before and be informed that the season had lasted three days and there was absolutely nowhere left with sour cherries.
So my friend with the passion for sour cherries (I don’t know I’ve ever tried one) dropped out, and the other two of us went and grabbed a full measure of black sweet cherries.
But, still, I am curious, and I would love to give the jam a try. I’d even share it with my passionate friend – he’s cute.
My grocery store seems to never have liquid pectin in stock, leaving me with either regular powdered or sugar-free powdered varieties. Can I substitute these, and if so, how should I substitute them?
Also, a neighbor who is a bit of a packrat gave me all of her old canning stuff, including some jelly jars with mason lids from what looks like the early 80s. Do mason jar lids go bad with time, even if they’ve never been used? The jars themselves are pristine, 12 oz jelly jars, which look perfect for drinking from or storing jelly.
Thanks for your help.
Ohh, yum. I have no idea if I can pick my own sour cherries out here. But I’m gonna have to look into it now.
That jam sounds yummy. I have my grandmothers old cherry oitter, a weird thing that screws on to the top of a ball jar.
ooh, i’d love some!
I love cherries in any format. I have been wanting to make jam and do some pickling but am not sure how to go about doing small batches…plus I am concerned about the whole killing myself and any others with badly processed items. When I get the nerve to start pickling I want to try a quick pickled cherries recipe I saw on Victory Garden. Oh, and please sign me up for the jam giveaway. Thanks!
Those are some luscious-looking cherries! I love the sour-sweet combination.
Yum!!! We’re enjoying your Strawberry Vanilla Jam recipe here. I love your site!
I hear you—these things are PRECIOUS. I bet the jam is delicious.
I love experimenting with new flavors of jam (such as the ginger peach jam I made a little while ago), but sadly, I’ve not had such a batch of cherries that I wanted to part with eating them fresh. You’re lucky to have had somewhere to pick them that hadn’t been thoroughly picked over!
Ooh, I’d love some sour cherry jam! They’re hard to find around Oregon, but I’ve been looking.
Ohhh I have the best memory of housesitting for a neighbor when i was about 9 years old. I snuck into their back yard, climbed inside the bird protection net and up the tree, and ate almost all of the cherries from the inside. I LOVE THESE!
Oooh! I’ve never had a sour cherry, but have read about them. I would love a jar to try!
That sounds so good. Never tried a sour cherry, but I think it’s about time!
What can I say, I love cherries!
Sounds yummy! You are inspiring!
Yogurt is also my favorite use for jam. I discovered it one day when I had some peach jam that didn’t set. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, so I stirred it into my yogurt. Yum!
My neighbors have a sour cherry tree . . . hm, wonder if I should broker a trade agreement – fruit for jam? It looks lovely and would be an amazing taste of summer in the bleak days of winter.
I’ll have to try this – thanks!
All those additions sound yummy! Cherry jam is one of my all time favourites!
Thanks for the recipe!
hi marisa,
this looks lovely. now you’ve got me wanting to try to get my hands on some sour cherries. i’m 3 hours north of you so i still have time. – i hope!
I’m in love with sour cherries this year too. I made a sour cherry, blueberry and sour cream cake with them last weekend and the cherries were definitely the star! I just love this site of yours Marisa. Great stuff. Wish I had realized you were doing it earlier, but I’m glad I know now.
Hi Marisa,
I’m glad to hear so many other people enjoy cherry jam! Thanks to your post, I’ve decided to go cherry picking here in CT and try some of the homemade goodness for myself!
looks good, nice job!