WIld Black Cherry Jam
I am the type of person that doesn’t like to do the same thing every day. OK I know the cow has to be milked, the animals & kids fed etc but I like to add variety to the daily routine so when we discovered that we had a Wild Cherry Tree here, even though the berries are small & a pain to pick, I was going to do it regardless! (This tree can be known by other names too according to the research I did to find out exactly what we had.)
The heat was high along with the tree so I had to get the tractor to climb on. Even then I could not reach the top branches by a longggggg way! We experimented with shaking the tree BUT the berries are SO small & the terrain there a little rough that that just scattered them & made more work. Managed to pick a gallon of berries so then it was time to wash & process them.
These berries are sharp & only about the size of a holly berry. The pips are poisonous just like regular cherry pips so they had to come out. I figured Jam was the best use for them. On a side note the wilting leaves are extremely toxic to animals so not a good idea to have your livestock anywhere near this tree in Fall.
- Add one cup of water to one gallon of berries.
- Stir constantly bringing to the boil & cooking until soft.
- Using a strainer, strain the juice & then start to “mush” the berries to get all the juice & whatever pulp you can out. It is not practical to remove the pips like with plums so you do have to sacrifice some of the pulp.
One gallon of berries yielded me 5 cups of thick juice:
Now it was time to make the jam. After not using enough sweetener in my Strawberry Jam last year I was determined to make sure this Jam was going to be enjoyed by the family! (Alot of sweat went into picking these & getting this far – I was not going to waste it! LOL!)
- Add 4 tbsp of Pectin plus a 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of butter and bring to a rolling boil. A rolling boil is one that cannot be stirred down. I used Classic Real Fruit Pectin by Ball. Apparently butter stops the jam foaming & I had NO foam at all with this.
- Add 5 cups of sugar. I used Organic Turbinado & began taste testing it after the 4th cup adding half a cup at a time up to 5.
- Return mixture to a rolling boil & boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat & using a funnel, ladle hot mixture into hot sterilized half pint jars. I always like to use half pint jars for jam so the contents, once open, get used up quicker & thus stay fresher. I made 8 half pints.
This jam was gelling before I had finished putting it into the jars so I was impressed. Of course the most important test was the taste test from the family. It got a thumbs up so I am hoping I can get out there tomorrow with the tractor & pick some more now that more are ripe.
Liz
Rachelle
July 4, 2012 @ 5:10 am
Hi Liz! That looks delicous!! Love your Blog. will be keepn up with you guys now!
Maria E. Moseley
February 28, 2018 @ 4:45 pm
Thank you for the recipe! We found a few wild black cherry trees last August, and I look forward to harvesting more this year before the birds and squirrels polish them off! Last year we made some nice black-cherry infused-rum.
liz
February 28, 2018 @ 10:03 pm
Enjoy!
Liz
Malcolm Swann
August 30, 2021 @ 11:22 am
Thank You from Nova Scotia Canada. This was the recipe I could find using our small Wild Black Cherries. Turned out amazing.
liz
August 30, 2021 @ 9:38 pm
That is WONDERFUL! Thank you SO much for letting me know 🙂
Liz
Teri Vogt
July 9, 2023 @ 5:47 am
It helps if you can “funnel” the berries into a clean garbage can (large round size with handles) when you shake the tree. We had a few energetic young men climb the trees and shake them while the rest of us held up the plastic as the berries rolled down into the container. We have dozens of trees in the woods but they are mixed in with all sorts of other trees, so its quite thsee project but well worth it if we can get them before the birds do. We ended up with about100 gallons of berries in a fun filled afternoon. I was a kid then, Mom & Dad made Wild Black Cherry wine.
liz
November 28, 2023 @ 8:48 pm
Wow! 100 gallons! That’s a LOT of berries to process. Memories like this those are SO precious.
Thanks for sharing,
Liz
Denise Habib
August 5, 2023 @ 1:39 pm
Thank you for the recipe! Our “new” house has a splendid old wild black cherry tree. I picked a pound and a half last weekend and am fermenting them for cordial but wanted to make jam too.
liz
November 28, 2023 @ 8:47 pm
SO glad you will be able to use the recipe. Enjoy your cordial 🙂
Thanks, Liz
Jessica
August 24, 2023 @ 2:58 pm
I made this recently and ran the cherries through a food mill. It was a cheap food mill, so it was a difficult process and some seeds slipped through, which I picked out of the cooking jam later. But it seemed to turn out great! Next batch of cherries I get my hands on, I might turn into some infused liqueur or pancake syrup.
liz
November 28, 2023 @ 8:46 pm
OOH! Pancake syrup sounds good 🙂