Cherries!

Much has been happening around this little place here in the month of July!  Unfortunately, our internet was out for roughly a week after being intermittent for several days prior to going MIA, so I haven't been able to get online and post about some of the many things we've done.

Today, however, I'm back in internet-land, and have pictures to share :0)

July in Michigan is cherry season!  I wasn't fast enough to get any of the cherries off of my own little tree that bore this year; one evening the cherries looked more red than yellow, and the next morning they were gone!  Every single one of them!  GRRRR!  Apparently there is a nocturnal creature who loves cherries; most likely one of the local raccoons.  I will have to be more wily next year.

I did, however, get a call from my Dad, telling me that his cherry tree was ripe and loaded with cherries.  So DD1, DD2, DS2 and I showed up on my parents' doorstep after church on July 7th, buckets and bowls and cherry-picking accoutrements at the ready.

 We set to picking after a good dousing in bug spray. (Boy, were the mosquitoes bad!  Much, much worse than at this little place here; but then again, my parents' backyard is much shadier than mine--my yard trees being ten years old or less and theirs being 30 years old or more. . .)

DS2 up the tall ladder, picking the highest branches.

DD2 picking the lowest branches,

 DD1 in the red shirt getting a bucket to pick into.

I never did get an exact measure either in pounds or quarts of cherries, but we got a lot off that one tree.  Enough for two batches of jam, a pie, and more in the freezer for future cherry desserts.

some of our cherry bounty

If you like cherry pie, you would like cherry jam.  It tastes pretty much the same, minus the crust.  Imagine eating 'cherry pie' on your breakfast toast or biscuit!  At this little place here we don't have to imagine, we get to actually eat it via homemade cherry jam.

Cherry jam is simple to make.  After washing and pitting your cherries--its the pitting that takes the most time--chop enough cherries to make 1 quart (4 cups after chopping; roughly 8 cups whole cherries).  Put those in a large sauce pot, along with 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1 package pectin.  Stir well while heating to a boil on high heat.  Once the cherry mixture reaches a rolling boil, add 5 cups sugar, and continue stirring.  When the cherry/sugar mix again reaches a hard rolling boil, stir and boil for exactly 1 minute.  Then remove from heat, put into clean 1/2 pint (8 ounce) jars leaving 1/4 inch head space, cap, and put into boiling water bath canner.  Process for 10 minutes.

Voila, cherry jam!  This recipe is another tried and true one from the Ball Blue Book (mine is circa 1991, a gift from my grandmother whom I used to help can green beans when I was growing up.)