Post-carbon food preservation III

These chelan cherries were canned in the solar cooker in two batches, two jars each week. They are reputed to be good pie cherries, but this is all that I will bother with canning until the small, "true" sour pie cherries come out in June or July. This may be the Montmorency variety but I don't know for sure.

Actually the first sunday, May 13, was the most ambitious solar canning day. I had two quarts and a pint of cherries in there, each jar was covered with a black sock to maximize heat absorption inside the cooker. One of the quart jars caved in under the pressure of the sock, so I'm not using this method anymore. Too many precious cherries were lost on that maiden voyage.

So the second sunday, may 20, I only bothered putting two quarts in there. It took 4 hours to can these. This is more than enough time to get home from market, pit 'em, and can a couple of quarts in the sun while doing something else well before the sun sets.

Each quart will make one pie. A pint I figure can make some tarts or something. I put a cup of sugar in each quart jar and that may be too much for the chelan cherries. For the tart July cherries last year it was a good ratio.

The whole process takes 4-5 hours.