Cherry Preserves

Our house was built in 1938, at the height of the Great Depression. Lines of cracked clay tell tales of decades of fight and neglect. In the front yard stands a cherry tree - 50 feet tall, proud, willful, pestilent. Branches droop from the weight of ripened fruit, and my arm sticky with the sap of my harvest.

Cherry Preserves | makes 5 half-pint jars
adapted from Ball Blue Book
3 cups pitted cherries
3 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 package powdered pectin

Combine cherries, sugar, and lemon juice in a large pot. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Continue cooking until foam begins to appear at the surface of the cherries (5 minutes).

Stir in pectin. Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Remove jars from canner and allow to cool on a tea towel.