Cherry Glut: jam making

This year the cherry tree has outperformed itself: this is the second picking.  There is no third picking as the ladders are too short and the birds got to the rest that I left to ripen up, taking a peck so the fruit dropped, which was hoovered up by the foxes.

So, I've already given away a couple of pounds, not even I can eat that many cherries at once....  So I decided to make jam.  For the first time ever.  I don't have a cherry pitter, just my knife and a thumbnail, so it too a while to destone them. 

I used two pounds of cherries, and put the stones in a piece of muslin tied with string.  But not much juice came out.

then I added the juice of a lemon and jam sugar.  Bad move.  Apparently it's jam sugar OR lemon juice with normal sugar.  Not both.  So, yes, it's set, oh how is it set! But it tastes well sweet and very very sour all at the same time.  Ok, so 2lbs of cherries down, lots more left in the bowl...

So I took another 2.5lbs of cherries and a bottle of wine and 10oz sugar and nutmeg and made a syrup with the wine/ sugar then added the washed whole cherries and well a friend rang, so it was considerably longer than the 10 mins cooking time, but eventually I ended up with very palatable cherries in wine. So that's 2 jars of nasty cherry jam (I hope it'll be bearable if I cook with it), and 2 jars of cherries poached in wine. 

And I've still got some cherries left - probably enough to retry the recipie without the lemon juice.  If it works, I'll post the recipie, if not I'll merely share the disappointment with you!