When life gives you cherries…

When I visit farmers’ markets I tend to get so excited and inspired by all the beautiful produce that I sometimes, okay often, end up purchasing more than I can consume in a timely manner.  This sometimes leads to bizarre behavior – eating radishes for two days straight, for instance – and sometimes leads me to think about how to prolong the life of what I’ve purchased. 

A couple weeks ago I bought about a pound of beautiful red sour cherries.  My intent was to make a little pie or tart with them.  But as I made my way through the peaches, apricots and Rainier cherries that I’d also come home with it soon became evident that the pie just wasn’t going to happen.  What to do?  Since I had been trying to be responsible with my purchases I didn’t have a lot of cherries so I was a bit limited in what I could do.  I decided the best thing was to make just a little bit of jam. 

This jam is really good!  A little tart, a little sweet and a very cheery cherry red – perfect on your morning toast or scone.  Probably good as a pork or chicken accompaniment, too; maybe even with salmon!  Mine won’t last long enough to try it too many ways – I love it in the morning! 

I wish that I could give you an actual recipe but, like many things, there are several variables that will affect how your batch works.  Instead I give you more of a guideline to work from. 

Sour Cherry Jam

1 pound of cherries, pitted

Place in saucepan and heat, mashing a bit, until cherries are tender. 

Place 1/2 to 3/4 of the cherries into a blender.  Cover the lid with a thick towel and firmly hold the lid closed as you start the blender on a low speed.  When the steam builds inside the blender it will try to push the lid off so press down firmly and only increase the speed after the initial "push" from the steam has passed.  Blend until fairly smooth but leave a little texture. 

Measure the total cherry volume (blended and unblended).  Add the cherries back into the pan.  Add the juice from 1/2 lemon and 3/4 of the cherry volume in sugar.  For instance, if you have one cup of cherries, you’ll add 3/4 cup of sugar. 

Place a saucer in the freezer.  Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring to ensure the sugar and lemon juice are thoroughly mixed in.  Once it boils you may want to reduce the heat a bit, but keep the mixture boiling. 

You’ll need to boil it for some time to reduce the mix to jam consistency, stirring often.  The time will vary depending on the amount of jam, the heat, the shape of your pan (wider pans evaporate faster then narrower), how juicy the fruit, etc.  For my small batch I think it took about 10 minutes. 

To test your jam’s consistency place a few drops on the chilled saucer.  In about 10 seconds it will have cooled and the consistency you see on the saucer will be the consistency once the jam has cooled.  You may need to repeat this test several times, until you get what you want. 

Once you have the consistency you want, pour the jam into clean jars.  If you have made a large batch you may actually want to place them in canning jars and seal.  If you made a small batch any jars will do but you need to keep the jam refrigerated. 

This method will work with just about any fruit so experiment with your farmers’ market "leftovers"!