Cherry Jam

Several months ago, a group of Christians donated a percentage of their crops (?) to our shul to go to whomever wanted it. Apparently, they thought that if they gave a certain amount of their produce to the Jews, Hashem would smile on them. So, our community ended up with, among other things, a hundred or more pounds of dried cherries. YUM! But now I've used dried cherries in lots of things. They'll last nearly ad infinitum, but I finally thought to try out making them into jam. So...

I boiled them and let them sit in a covered pot for 24 hours. They re-plumped nicely. I drained off some of the juice (used some in a cherry-chocolate sorbet and the rest will be for a shabbos drink treat). I used this recipe:

3 lbs cherries
1/3 cup pectin (= 1 box)
1/4 cup lemon juice
5 c. sugar

You just combine the cherries (you can lightly chop the cherries in the food processor if you want; I did it both ways), pectin, and lemon juice and bring it to a hard boil. Add the sugar, and when it returns to a hard boil count down one minute and turn it off. You can it in a hot water bath if you want. I canned 8 quarts, and stashed the rest in the freezer to jam later. Should get another 8 quarts out of those cherries. I think I now have a lifetime supply of orange marmalade and cherry jam. I still have some spring strawberries in the freezer too!