Cherry-Strawberry Jellam

People are picky about their cherries. The other day someone came into the stand looking for cherries and we had some, but there weren’t many left. He took the whole box of them over to the sun and went though each and every cherry in the box. A little later he came over to me with a bag of perfect fruit. The rest however, he said needed to go into the garbage. He was right. He took every last perfect cherry and the leftovers were all pretty sad – some had super smooshy tops while others had an under-developed twin sticking off the stem. At the end of the day, no one took them – so of course, instead of throwing them away, I just had to take them home. That same day there was also 2/3 of a basket of organic strawberries that had been passed over all day. They had similar symptoms of over-ripeness.

So, what do you do with squishy, super-sweet, over-ripe fruit? It was obvious to me! Make jam! I had never made freezer jam, but I hear about it often. Freezer jam is easier to make than regular processed jam, and requires less fruit and less sugar. This was a good option for me, because I was tired and I figured there was only about a pound of fruit to use.

Here’s all I did – washed all the fruit, and discarded the really weird ones. For the strawberries, I hulled them, cut off the squishy parts, then cut the rest of the fruit in quarters. For the cherries, I de-stemmed them, pulled off any weird twins, cut off the super-over ripe part, then just pushed out the pit. Then it all went straight into the blender! The recipe called for two full cups of fruit… I was a little bit short, so I threw in a ¼ cup of blueberries I had laying around, and blended the mixture up again.

The recipe that follows, is straight from the instructions that come in the regular Sure-Jell Fruit Pectin box:

Strawberry Freezer Jam 

• 2 cups crushed strawberries (buy 1 qt. fully ripe strawberries) 
• 4 cups sugar, measured into separate bowl 
• 3/4 cup water 
• 1 pkg. SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin 

Directions:

1. Rinse 5 (1-cup) plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly. Discard stems. Crush strawberries thoroughly, 1 cup at a time. Measure exactly 2 cups prepared fruit into large bowl. Stir in sugar. Let stand 10 min., stirring occasionally.
2. Mix water and pectin in small saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Continue boiling and stirring 1 min. Add to fruit mixture; stir 3 min. or until most the sugar is dissolved. (A few sugar crystals may remain.) Fill containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids.
3. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to 1 year. (If frozen, thaw in refrigerator before using.)
4. Substitutions: The cherry freezer jam recipe called for exactly the same quantities as the strawberry one, so I felt confident substituting half cherries. Also, I wasn’t preserving it for the long term, so chemistry wasn’t 100% important.

Also, what I make is Jellam. I hate big chunks of fruit in my jam. It makes it hard to spread on toast, it has a weird mouth feel, and the chunks often float to the top of the jar… I don’t know, I just don’t like it. But, I also, don’t love jelly. It takes longer to make, its super thin, I don’t think it’s as flavorful. So, I just blend my fruit, to just about smooth. Kind of a half way between a jelly and a jam – a Jellam!

This recipe would work for those leftover strawberries and cherries in your fridge, that didn't get eaten at their peak and their just not that appealing to pop in your mouth as a snack. This jellam ended up being sweet concoction of fresh fruit goodness.