How to Can Fresh Cherries for Pies

Nothing beats the taste of a pie made with freshly canned cherries.

Cherry pies are a favorite of many people, and can be baked at home using whole food ingredients. If you are going to make a homemade cherry pie, you can make the pie taste fresher by using cherry pie filling that is created from fresh cherries. To make fresh cherry pie filling to use in your cherry pies, you must first know how to properly can fresh cherries into glass canning jars.

Things You'll Need

• 4 cups fresh cherries
• Cherry pitter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• Pot
• Strainer
• Canning jars with lids
• Water bath canner
• Canning jar grasper

Instructions

1. Wash the cherries in a large pot of water and drain them.

2. Use a cherry pitter to remove all the pits from the cherries. Discard the pits.

3. Pour a gallon of water into the pot with the cherries, and boil them for one minute. Drain the cherries.

4. Combine the corn starch, water, sugar and lemon juice in a pot, and heat them to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for two minutes.

5. Add the cherries into the mixture, stirring well.

6. Spoon the cherry pie filling into the glass jars. Leave a 1/2-inch allowance at the top of each jar. Screw the lids onto the jars.

7. Place the jars into a canning bath filled with enough water to cover all of the jars. Boil the water for 30 to 40 minutes.

8. Use the canning grasper to remove the jars. Allow the jars to cool completely. Open the jars as needed to make a pie.

References

• Pick Your Own: Cherry Pie Filling