Black Cherry Balsamic preserves.

We beat the birds to the cherry tree this year and harvested a large bucket of sweet tart black pie cherries! They are delicious out of hand but are even more delicious when made into preserves. We have been eating it on every sort of bread imaginable. I added a big scoop to our berry shortcake desert last night too. Holy cherries Batman! That was good!

I don't have a recipe but here's what I did. 4-5 lbs tart cherries pitted and chopped + one large handful sweet cherries ( I used Nam cherries from the farmer's market.) Cook the cherries with one packet sure-jell pectin until the back of a cold spoon coats thickly ( I keep a spoon in cold water near the stove and check every few minutes.) Measure how much mass you have and add 3/4 that amount of sugar. I had 4 cups of cherries so I added 3 cups of plain white sugar. Return to pot and add 2 Tbls good balsamic vinegar . Cook another 5-8 minutes. Stir often, don't walk way.

Process according to pectin directions in pint jars or freeze in very clean plastic containers.

Presto! Delicious! Cherry and sweet and surprising. The cherry tree was covered in birds this morning. We were just in time!