Hi FL, I've been lucky enough to have been given 2kg of beautiful cherries. We'll eat some, but I'd like to make a small qty of jam, and the recipes I've looked at seem to have a lot of sugar. If the jam is too sweet we won't eat it, so just wondering if any FL have a tried and true recipe for a not-too-sweet jam pls? Was also thinking of freezing some for later in the year as I love duck with cherries. It seems as easy as wash/dry/pit and freeze - anyone tried this? Many thanks for any advice.
(weather report - 41d here in Adelaide today)

Wow that is hot Heather. I hope you have a pool.
From my understanding our summer eating cherries are not the best for jam or other preserves as the flavour doesn't travel well when cooked.
I thought they were best eaten fresh as they are a different variety from the cherries that are typically used in jam, pies and other preserves.

Does anyone know if this is right or not?

I agree, sweet cherries don't have enough flavour to make into jam or jelly. It's morello cherries that have the marvellous flavour when cooked.

Also agree, sour black cherries which we don't really see seem to be the ones to use for preserves of any kind. However, every year I wash, pit and freeze cherries for later in the year, mostly get used for smoothies but I love to make a sort of sauce with them, just put them in a saucepan with some sugar and simmer until starting to break down, add a squeeze of lemon and then some Amaretto or Distrano liquor to taste, cool then pour into glass jars and store in the fridge (lasts for months, well days or weeks until all gone). Serve over vanilla ice cream with some almond biscuits crumbled over the top and some more Amaretto to drink or poured over.....lovely. You could just add some almond extract if you didn't want to use the liqueur, that works well too, just taste as you go.

Thanks All - have read a fair few recipes and conflicting info about which cherry to use, and while the ones I've been given are lovely, I don't think the flavour is tasty enough for jam, so I think I'll freeze a lot of them in small qtys for use in sauces as Danube suggested (yum!), or for smoothies.

Helen - no pool unfortunately but fab a/c thank goodness. Still 41d at 6.45pm.

I agree with Helen that our red cherries are not good for jam, tarts or cooking at all
Just to eat fresh
I did find a grower in Sth Island a few months ago who grows sour cherries and sells on his website

After messaging him, it unfortunately was a pale cherry that he has and whlie may be good for cooking with a nice sour flavour - I did not buy any to try as really wanted a red cherry pie/slice
And from memory it was only in 1kg or 2 kg so couldn't try a small quantity