Caught Red Handed

On Saturday I went to my local farmer's market and was, for the most part, pleasantly surprised.

I found a lot of goodies and it was lucky I brought my pack horse, Luke, to carry the fresh veggies, home-baked breads, beautiful crafts, and local fruit back to the car for me.

But, like I said, I was only pleasantly surprised for the most part. And the local fruit was the part I was not so pleasantly surprised with...

I wandered over to a stand and saw a basket of sour cherries and thought, oh I've never tried these. So of course I bought a basket full.

Before I handed over the $2.00, I asked the farmer how they tasted. She said you'll love them, just eat them like a cherry.

I thought that was great they'll be like those Sour Patch Kids I used to love, sweet with a slight touch of sourness, so I popped the basket into my shopping bag to try at home and went on my way.

Little did I know that sour cherries are not sweet at all. They are only sour.

They tasted horrible and I was annoyed that I wasn't properly warned. But because I will not waste anything, I thought up a yummy little plan.

Cheery Cherry Jam (makes 2 250 ml jars of jam)

2 1/4 cups pitted cherries (I used 1 cup sour cherries and 1 cup sweet cherries)
3 1/2 cups white sugar
1 pouch of pectin

1. Roughly chop your pitted cherries and measure out two cups after chopping. I like to leave some large chunks for texture, but you might want to chop your cherries finely if you don't want pieces of fruit in your jam.

2. Add a quarter cup, cherries, and sugar to a large pot on the stove at high heat. Bring mixture to a boil.

3. Boil for about a minute and then remove from heat.

4. Stir in pectin and continue to stir and skim for about 7 more minutes.

5. Pour into sterilized jars* and leave about a quarter inch room at the top. Screw lids on tightly and listen for the sweet sound of the pop.

*I just put my clean glass jars in the oven at 200 degrees and my lids in a small pot on the stove in boiling water while I make my jam to sterilize them. I've never had a problem.

6. Enjoy as you wish, but please try a Cheery Cherry Jam and Bacon Sandwich. Just toast two slices of bread, load Cheery Cherry Jam onto each slice, and sandwich some crispy bacon between the slices. Yum!

These sandwiches make me forget how the farmer didn't warn me enough about the incredibly sour taste, because I never would have bought the cherries otherwise and this jam is great!