Summer Greenmarket Brunch, with jam

Temptation meets hostility at the Union Square market; this scared me off those peaches, good as they looked.I've discovered that with the Citibikes, I can haul more stuff back from the greenmarket. Here's some of what I very carefully rode back with today, and how we used it.

Pullet eggs from Violet Hill Farms

The eggs -- from pullets, which I learned are chickens that have just started to lay eggs, basically the sixteen-and-pregnant gals of the barnyard -- became a tarragon-heavy egg salad, served with tomatoes, lettuce and challah, and a fruit salad of blueberries, plums and mint.

Then, this:

It's SOUR CHERRY season.My friend Ellen Shapiro, who was the excellent fact-checker on SMART CHEFS, stopped by my office yesterday all excited about sour cherries coming into their very short season.  So when I saw them at the market this morning I grabbed a bunch, tasted them, and decided they would be jam.

Here's the recipe:

Use 3/4 the amount of sugar to the amount of cherries. My bag of cherries weighed (after pitting) 9 oz, so: 6.75 oz of sugar.  (You can eyeball this with measuring cups too, if you don't have a scale.)

Put in a heavy pot over medium-high heat with juice of one lemon, a cinnamon stick, and Why I save jam jars from the store.a couple whole cloves. Stir until the heat and the juices released from the cherries dissolves the sugar. Simmer for 30-45 minutes or so, until the fruit is broken down (help it along with a fork if you don't like big pieces in your jam) and the liquid is starting to gel.  Cool, and store in the fridge. Enjoy.