After I got sick of pitting sour cherries I borrowed a steam juice extractor from a friend and filled it up. It was so much fun seeing the beautiful juice come out that I asked for one for my birthday! My birthday’s coming up soon so I think I’m going to get it early and use it on some raspberries this coming weekend 
The steam juicer ready to go.
Since I was juicing at my parent’s house I didn’t put the juice directly into canning jars but I’m excited that, that is possible. The juice comes out piping hot and with very little sediment.
{Putting Up} Sour Cherry Juice
Juice your sour cherries in a steam juicer or heat them in a large pot and strain out the pits and pulp. Bring the cherry juice up to a boil and ladle it into hot, sterile pint jars. Wipe the rims and seal. Process the jars for 15 minutes (for 5k’ elevation) in a hot water bath. Let cool and check the seals.
I love the bright color!
This juice is very good for you but is rather tart! I plan to add it to homemade beverage concoctions or cook it down with a little sugar to make a syrup. There was a little juice left over so I did cook that down with some sucanat and it’s a wonderful syrup that I’ve been adding to my kombucha.
Stan’s mom used to can a lot of her sour cherry juice. She simply ran out of time. We were the recipients of lots of that juice. Made nice jelly!
I have made some juice and maraschino cherries and add the leftover syrup in my pot to my kombucha as well!
Nice work, Loretta’s mom has one of those juice extractors and I saw her use it with crabapples to make jelly, it is pretty cool!