This recipe was a mix of the University of Georgia’s home canning instructions and the internet. I used Rainier cherries for the cherry jam, but did not use pectin, which is the primary deviation from the initial recipe. I started with a bag of Rainier cherries from Annie’s Fun Farm, a local vendor of fresh fruits and veggies.

I rinsed the cherries and removed their stems. I then split them and removed their pits. I put the cherries into the food processor with a tablespoon of lemon juice and the metal blades. I ran the food processor until the cherries were all broken up.

Then, I put the sliced up cherries into my pan, and added an equal amount of sugar. In this case, it was 4 cups of puree and 4 cups of sugar. I brought the mixture to a rolling boil, and because I had read that cherries can take longer to boil down to a jelling consistency, I used the freezer method (a bit of jam on a plate in the freezer for 3 minutes) to check that it was done at the end of a 10 minute hard boil.

Then, I ladled the jam into the prepared jars, centered the lids, finger-tightened the rings, and carefully placed the jars into the water bath. I brought the water back to a boil, and allowed the jars to boil for 10 minutes. I carefully removed them from the water after 10 minutes and placed them on a clean towel to cool. I checked their seal about 20 hours later. Jars need to cool for 12-24 hours before checking their seal.