I love a good cherry pie. My grandmother used to make the most amazing cherry pies, and I remember helping her pick and pit those cherries. I no longer have access to a sour cherry tree, but I came across a Michigan orchard that ships frozen cherries in bulk, so I decided to order some and make some cherry pie filling. I highly recommend King Orchards for their frozen cherries. They were big, beautiful, and best of all already pitted. Shipping was a bit steep since I ordered in the summer, but I was willing to deal with that to get those wonderful cherries.

The canning recipe I used is found in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It specifically calls for frozen cherries, although I don’t know why you couldn’t use fresh if that’s what you have. This recipe also calls for ClearJel, which I had on hand. Ball has a recipe for a cherry pie filling that doesn’t need ClearJel ( in the All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving), but I wanted the filling to be ready to use after opening, so I went with the one that uses ClearJel. The recipe says to drain cherries in a colander until you get 8 cups of cherry juice. I didn’t come close to getting 8 cups out of my 10 pounds, and I left them to drain for close to 3 hours. Don’t worry if you don’t get 8 cups — you only need 4 cups for the filling.

I sampled what was left in the pot after filling my jars, and it sure reminded me of Grandma’s pies — delicious!

Tart Cherry Pie Filling

10 pounds frozen tart cherries, thawed in the refrigerator for 24 hours

3-1/2 cups sugar

1 cup ClearJel

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 lemon juice

In a colander placed over a large bowl, drain thawed cherries, stirring occasionally, until you have collected 8 cups of juice (about 2 hours). Set liquid and cherries aside.

Meanwhile, prepare canner, jars, and lids.

In a large stainless steel saucepan, whisk together 4 cups of cherry liquid, sugar, ClearJel, and cinnamon. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, and boil until thickened and mixture begins to bubble. Add lemon juice, return to a boil, and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add reserved cherries all at once. Return to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly and gently. Remove from heat.

Ladle hot pie filling into hot jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot filling. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until fingertip tight.

Place jars in boiling water canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process both pint and quart jars for 35 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars and cool.

Yield: About 8 pints or 4 quarts

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