another jam session

i made black cherry jam.  it's my dad's favorite flavor, and i like it too.  the last batch i made was only a few jars and i wanted to make more to share.

i bought 4 pints of cherries, soaked them in a wash of water and baking soda and had a blast pitting them with my cherry pitter:

then i mashed them to bits with my gram's red handle potato masher:

i needed 4 cups of mashed cherries - had enough and then some:

i cut the amount of sugar to 4 cups instead of 4.5 and added 2 tbs of lemon juice and a pat of butter (to help with foaming - didn't work anyway)...

simmered until it coated a spoon, then i let it rip for a minute, skimmed the foam...

ladled the mixture into half pint jars...

after the jars were cleaned and lids screwed on, they took a dip in the hot water bath for 10 minutes...


the fruits of my labor (pun intended):

one of the most pleasant sounds in the world is hearing the lids of your work go *POP*!

i had a tiny bit of jam left that i scraped into a small jar and chilled in the fridge.  after it cooled i used some to make a butter and jelly sandwich.  it was one of the best butter and jelly sandwiches i ever ate! when i make cherry jam again, i'll cut the sugar even more - the jam is pretty sweet, and bing cherries are naturally sweet on their own.

i'm looking out for grapes now - the place we buy our meats have a small vineyard and sell the best concord grapes.  my next project - grape jelly.  beside cherry jelly, grape is my absolute favorite jelly.

i'm getting used to canning and putting up produce.  in the past few weeks i put up two dozen ears of corn (steamed, cut off the cob and frozen) and two quarts of green beans (steamed, blanched and frozen).  hubby canned 8 pints of tomato sauce plus we're making more today.  it'll be nice to have a little bit of summer during the dark cold winter months.