Yes, use that product. I cut it to 2.5 cups sugar, and do get a gel. I do though add things to help. Like some lemon or lime juice not only to gel, but to make sure pH is low enough to inhibit bacterial growth. If I feel a fruit doesn’t have enough pectin, I add it to a fruit that does, like I plan to make Carmine Jewel-Red currant jam. Currants are packed with pectin. It will no doubt gel.
Stir a lot so it doesn’t scorch at all. Make sure before you add the sugar that the mixture is at a good rolling boil. Not just starting to boil. Once sugar added keep stirring till at a rolling boil again, and keep it there one minute or so. It should gel now, test on cold plate.
Under ripe fruit is always high in pectin so I try to include some under ripe fruit. Currents or cherries.
If this still doesn’t work you can try the calcium gel. It works extremely well. You could add just a 1/2 cup of sugar and it will gel! This pectin never fails to gel. Follow label directions. You can get the product on Amazon under the brand name Pomona.
Maybe I will try the whole romance series cherries http://www.fruit.usask.ca/dwarfsourcherries.html but for now Carmine Jewell is fine with me. Blackberry season starts soon and it is another huge harvest. A person can only pick so much fruit. I try to space the fruits/ripening times out so I can handle the harvest.
Thanks so much for the reply. I have honestly never seen so many cherries on one tree! I too do not like over sugared jam, but yours surely looks great and if it passed your wife’s test it must be good!
I was in the middle of making it all up when you posted Drew, but I did use a little less than the 3 cups of sugar called for. It set up very nicely, wow was I happy. The cherries wanted to float a little right out of the bath, but as the cooled down some I turned them over and before long they were distributed pretty good.
I actually bought an old chop-rite but it won’t do CJ’s. I also bought a Nu-Pro (I think it’s called???) and had no luck with it either. I just slit the top a little with a knife and squeeze out the pit. Just doing them by hand for now.
Galinas and Iowa…yes, I agree–there is something lacking in CJ. We have 3 bushes, 4-years-old, and they are really starting to produce. We are picking them while we pick from our tart cherry trees, and it seems that CJ just doesn’t match the trees for flavor or aroma. I would describe them as bland. Where I once had been excited about adding other varieties from the romance series, now I am not so sure. Can anyone describe how the other bush cherries in the romance series compare to CJ in flavor and aroma?
I probably won’t add later ripening varieties right now. Give it a few years…let you guys work out the kinks. I have my sweet cherries that we really enjoy that so far seem to be pretty reliable here.
The pits are so darn small they want to fall through with the cherry and you have to fish them out. It seemed to me that it did a great job of mutilating the cherries, but there was precious little in the bowl after feeding it a lot, and a ton of stuff remained on the pits that it actually did spit out in the pit bowl. The Chop-Rite works well on Montmorency though.
I have a soft spot for my ER, it’s been a consistent and trouble free producer for a lot of years. I love the flavor and I guess I’d have to say if I had to choose a piece of pie between the two I’d choose ER. My wife likes CJ better in all regards, and in fact has encouraged me to cut down my ER, reasoning that I should never again have to get on a ladder so long as the CJ’s are so good. (I really kinda wish I could have an ER in a CJ style bush, then I’d be in heaven!!!)
I’m so happy with how the ER jam turned out using the pink Sure-Jell less sugar thing, I can hardly wait to do it on some CJ’s so I can do a side-by-side taste test with all things being equal. That CJ with the more sugar was still really good on the toast BTW, but the ER had a tart/sweet bite that I’ve become accustomed to.
Yes they did not put out the number of gallons yours did as younger and smaller and really 1st fruiting year besides just a few last year, but they kept 4 of us and some birds eating them for weeks, as others have stated they really best when the hit that darker shade, but as many as there were I was enjoying them from the lighter color. I did not process any this year but I plan on dehydrating as the bounty grows.
Wow, fantastic yields, good to see! Cooler climate in my part of the world (central Alberta), so I don’t expect my Romance cherries to ripen for another 5 or 6 weeks.
You never can have it all, so sad
I was at so much hope finally to get producing and strong sour cherry. I guess, no miracles here - you have to sacrifice on something. I also have 1 bush of Crimson Passion, but it is not producing yet. What type of other tart cherry you have, the ones you compare to? I have North Star, but it is very unreliable producer - it flowers like crazy every spring and I pick a max half-gallon in a good year, and on a bad year just handful of berries.
Carmine Jewell are a fine tart cherry which really are much better than most. Considering all things there is nothing that competes with them. Dwarf which makes them easy to pick, heavy bearing, disease resistant, good flavor, quick to produce, on their own roots, etc… In my opinion the best use for them is to be processed into juice and jelly. Every cherry has a place and montmorency and others should be grown of course. After reading this thread I’m going to try Early Richmond. I appreciate Carmine Jewell when spraying in Kansas or when picking because of the wind.
I suppose CJ is much better than Nanking. Does anyone have side by side pictures of CJ and Nanking. How much larger of a cherry is CJ? When I planted Nankings I had never even heard of Carmine Jewell. Wish I had knew any better and would’ve went that route.
I tasted mine and thought CJ had an excellent flavor. Surprisingly sweet for a tart cherry. I guess each has to decide if they feel it’s what they want. I have no plans to add other tarts, this tree is fine.
Drew,
The one complaint I had with them is they produced to many cherries for birds, me, family and friends to keep up with. I wasn’t prepared. Anything that produces fruit like that is excellent. They could make cherry juice affordable to everyone again. Would love to see concentrate cherry juice in the store like I see apple or grape juice. Those big standard trees produce a lot but they also shade out a lot of growing space that’s not being used.
True. I wonder if commercial growers are planting these? Would probably be easy to harvest with machinery too. 100% cherry juice costs a mint. You could plant these things in very cold areas too. Think of what 10 acres of these would bring in!
I’m glad i added one, but i’m glad i just have one. If that is how they produce, one will be more then enough. I’ll probably freeze what we don’t eat.
