I told myself I wasn’t going to do much this summer in the way of canning and freezing. But when you hear of sweet cherries for only $.60 a pound and someone volunteers to pick them for you . . . well, that’s a different story.
So Friday saw us canning about thirty pounds of sweet cherries, which yielded 21 quarts.
If you’re new to canning, this is the easiest fruit out there to can. A good place to start your canning career!
First, we wash them and then let them drain a few minutes. If you wanted to pit yours, this is where you would do it. However, we can ours whole.
Then we fill our jars with these luscious sweet cherries.
They look so pretty in their jars!
I like to make a light syrup for all of my fruit. This stockpot I call my dutch oven, although I know it’s not truly a dutch oven. But it was close to the size of pot my mother called her dutch oven, so therefore in my mind, it is my dutch oven. Did you follow all that?
To make my syrup, I dump 6 cups sugar into this “dutch oven sized pot”. Then fill it on up to the top with hot tap water – hot enough to dissolve the sugar, stirring well.
Then we pour our syrup over the cherries.
Meanwhile, my canning lids have been at a slow boil to heat them up. This is the first time I’ve reused canning lids. And I must say I was impressed! Every last one of my jars sealed.
When I first heard of ladies reusing their canning lids, I didn’t have much faith that it would work. Canning is enough hard work without getting all done and finding your jars didn’t seal. But if you take them off with a spoon, instead of a can opener, it keeps the rubber seal intact so you can reuse them next year.
Next we put the lids on and screw a ring on top – tight.
After that, we put them in our water bath canner and make sure they are covered with water. Turn the burner on high and wait for it to come to a boil. Once the water is boiling, we time them for 10 minutes. Then take them out and set them on an old towel and cover them with another old towel. This helps to seal them!
And we’re done!
Almost.
Once they are completely cool, we take off the rings, wash the jars, and put them on the canning shelves in the basement.
And thank our great and wonderful God for providing for our needs!
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Cara Lorenz says
Beautiful!
Mrs. Sarah Coller says
This is an excellent tutorial—thank you!
Lori in Texas says
Gorgeous jars of cherry jewels… great tutorial. And what a blessing to get your fruit so cheap! Tip: I always put a dollop of vinegar in my canner and that alleviates any white sediment in my pot and on my jars. I canned for many years before my mom gave me that advice!
Thanks for great blog I only recently found…
Lori
ourfamilyishis says
This looks so easy!!! I am going to go buy the sweet cherries I found at a great deal the other day and can them for my family.
Laura says
I remember how Lowell used to clean up a jar of canned cherries 🙂 Your pictures are beautiful!
Living in the Shoe says
He still loves them!
geo says
Long will the cherries keep for
Kendra says
Canned goods can last for several years.