Born in the Wrong Century

I can’t help but notice all the fruit trees as my husband and I drive around town.  Now that I’m comfortable knocking on doors to ask to pick fruit I’ve noticed them everywhere.  It also helps that one of my brothers works for the City Water Department & gives me the low down on when fruit is ripe and their general location.

The trees were full!

The sour cherry trees were 3 weeks ahead of last year and I found more then 10 of them in city limits that were loaded.  I’ve gone out a few times to pick but they are a lot of work to process so I think I might be over cherries for the year
Over the weekend I put up: 4 qts pie filling, 2 qts preserved, 4 pts juice, 1 jar of syrup & 1 qt dried (which was 4 qts fresh)!

I wish they came pitted

{Recipe} Cherry Pie Filling
(adapted from ifood.tv)
5 cups sugar
5 cups filtered water
12 Tbsp organic cornstarch (you can use Clear Gel but I’ve never had a problem with cornstarch)
5 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp sea salt
16 cups tart cherries, packed tight

Wash and pit the cherries (you can keep them in the fridge for a day if you can’t get to the canning right away).  Place the cherries in a large pot with 4 cups of the sugar & 4 cups of the water.  Bring up to a boil and boil for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile whisk together the remaining sugar, water, lemon juice and cornstarch.  Stir the cornstarch slurry into the cherries and hold at a boil for 1 minutes.  Ladle the cherries evenly into hot, sterile quart jars.  Ladle the syrup over the cherries leaving 1 inch head space.  Wipe the rims and seal.  Process the jars for 40 minutes (for 5k’ elevation) in a hot water bath.  Leaving the jars in the hot water for 5 minutes before removing helps with siphoning.  Let cool and check the seals.
*** To bake a pie.  Pour the filling into a pie crust, top with a second crust and bake at 400* for 30-40 minutes.  If you have any of the pie syrup left over enjoy it stirred into oatmeal or yogurt.

Won’t these be great over the winter?