Our neighbours have a cherry tree in their garden that is very close to the garden wall between our gardens. I love the view of the tree covered in cherry blossoms in the spring.

This year, we receive a big basket of ripe cherries from them, perfect for making jam.

Ingredients

3.5 kg cherries

juice of 1 lime

600 gms sugar

1 packet pectin

NB! Remember to buy or wash and sterilize the bottles needed to store the jam.

Getting the cherries ready

Check the cherries, removing any fruit that has been eaten by birds etc, while also removing the stalks & leaves etc. Wash the cherries in a large colander and leave to drain.

Choose a big cooking pan and weigh it so you can deduct the weight later.

Now you can start to destone the cherries into the cooking pan. w

Weigh the cherries using this pan to determine the weight of the cherries.

Add the juice of one lime and sugar that is 1/2 the weight of the destoned cherries. I use less sugar and a packet of pectin since I am avoiding sugar in my diet.

Mix the ingredients and cover. Leave to stand for 1 hour.

Putting it together

Heat the pan with cherries on high heat until it starts to bubble. Lower the temperature and leave to cook on low heat for approx. 30 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes.

Put a saucer in the fridge for use later.

If you like a smooth jam or jam with small chunks of cherry, use a hand held blender to crush the cherries accordingly.

Finally, stir in the pectin and continue to cook on low heat until the mixture passes the ‘jam test’. Put a teaspoon of jam on the saucer that was cooled. Leave for a few minutes and then pull a spoon through the jam, dividing the jam. If the jam is ready to bottle it will not flow back together.

Once the jam is ready, spoon the jam into the bottles and tighten the covers while the jam is hot. Leave to cool. Label and store in a cool dark place.