[afraidfortherepublic]

Your plum nectar looks great. Do you all remember 2 years ago when I was trying my hand at making jam after nearly 25 years of NOT making jam? I was trying to make cherry preserves and it never jelled, despite following the recipe slavishly, so I re-labled my jars “cherry sauce” and gave it away to friends and family. I found a left-over jar the other day, and it has finally jelled. It has turned into an excellent jam, which I am enjoying. Why so long?

[JustaDumbBlonde]

When you prepared the cherry jam, did you add pectin? One way to make sure that jelly or jam sets is to make sure that about 1/5 to 1/4 of your fruit is under-ripe. That fruit contains more fruit pectin and aids in proper setting. If you don't have any under-ripe fruit, added fruit pectin is helpful.

I make jalapeno and other pepper jellies every year and they are notorious for a slow set. Takes at least a couple of weeks, sometimes longer. But they do eventually firm up. Maybe cherries are the same way.

I've never made cherry jam, but I have done chokecherry jelly, jam and syrup. My syrup always gelled while stored, but you could pop it in the microwave for a few seconds and it was good to go.